ST. LOUIS (AP) — Austin Riley hit a two-run homer and Dylan Dodd pitched five strong innings in his major league debut, helping the Atlanta Braves beat the St. Louis Cardinals 4-1 on Tuesday night.
Dodd allowed one run and six hits. The left-hander struck out three and walked none, throwing 52 of his 73 pitches for strikes.
Jesse Chavez, Joe Jiménez, Dylan Lee and Kirby Yates combined for three scoreless innings before A.J. Minter worked a perfect ninth for his first save of the season.
St. Louis got its only run on Willson Contreras’ RBI single in the fourth. The Cardinals put runners on second and third with two out in the fifth, but Dodd (1-0) got Tommy Edman to fly out to right.
Riley drove a Steven Matz changeup deep to left to make it 2-0 in the first. Riley also homered in Atlanta’s 8-4 victory on Monday.
Orlando Arcia led off the second with another homer for the Braves, and Sean Murphy tacked on an RBI single in the third.
Matz (0-1) allowed 10 hits in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out seven and walked one.
St. Louis second baseman Taylor Motter went 1 for 2 with a fifth-inning double in his major league debut.
Tyler O’Neill attempted to score on Brendan Donovan’s pinch-hit single as St. Louis attempted to rally in the seventh, but Ronald Acuña Jr. threw out O’Neill at the plate to end the inning.
Jordan Walker singled in the seventh. The Cardinals rookie has hit safely in all five of his games.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Braves: LHP Max Fried (strained left hamstring) was placed on the 15-day injured list retroactive to Saturday.
Cardinals: OF Lars Nootbaar (left thumb contusion) was placed on the 10-day IL on Monday and OF Juan Yepez was recalled from Triple-A Memphis.
UP NEXT
Right-hander Miles Mikolas (0-0, 13.50 ERA) will start Wednesday as the Cardinals try to avoid the sweep against the Braves and right-hander Bryce Elder (2-4, 3.17 ERA in 2022). Mikolas is 1-3 with a 3.04 ERA against Atlanta in five career games. Elder was recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett on Tuesday.
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