​ATLANTA, GEORGIA – JUNE 30: Ian Hamilton #71 of the Atlanta Braves returns to the dugout during the eighth inning against the St. Louis Cardinals at Truist Park on June 30, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images) | Getty Images The St. Louis Cardinals won the series not only in the most important column but also in the overall tally. The final aggregate score was 17-13, and of those 17 St. Louis runs, 11 came in just two of the 27 innings played. I’m not going to claim the Braves were the better team across these three games (if they were, we’d be discussing strong results instead of the disappointing turn this series took), but it shows how quickly a game can slip away in this sport. It also highlights how rough a stretch the Braves are in right now, feeling as if nothing is going right for them consistently. If you want to dive deeper, I’ve got the series details ready for you. Let’s get into it.
Tuesday, June 30 – Cardinals 5, Braves 3: With Matthew Liberatore struggling on the mound and Atlanta mired in a prolonged offensive funk, it seemed inevitable someone would break through. Unfortunately, Liberatore turned in a strong five innings, despite Atlanta drawing four walks off him. The Braves finally pushed across a run on a third-inning sacrifice fly, giving them the lead, but Martín Pérez faltered in the fourth. Nelson Velásquez crushed a solo shot to tie the game, and then Pérez failed to fool Nathan Church with a changeup, leaving it in the Chop House and turning the inning into a four-run burst for St. Louis. Given Atlanta’s recent sputtering offense, this looked like the pivotal moment of the game. The next three innings did little to avert that impression, though the Braves did awaken in the seventh and eighth. Ozzie Albies singled in a run in the seventh, and Ryan Fernandez’s second wild pitch of the eighth added another, trimming the deficit. Matt Olson moved into scoring position with a ninth-inning double, bringing the tying run to the plate, but Ryan O’Brien kept St. Louis’s lead intact and Atlanta’s slide continued.
Wednesday, July 1 – Braves 5, Cardinals 1: Earlier on Wednesday, the English national football team did something… (note: this sentence seems misplaced and disrupts flow; if this is to be kept for SEO, you may want to revise).