Atlanta Braves: 3 takeaways from comeback win over the Cardinals in Game 3

With the series shifted to Busch Stadium, the Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals matched up on Sunday for Game 3 of the NLDS.

By a quarter to eight o’clock Sunday night on the East Coast, Braves Country was on top of the world — the Atlanta Braves had fought through another strong opposing pitcher and made a remarkable comeback, defeating the St. Louis Cardinals 3-1 on Sunday night. Absolutely relentless.

Be sure to check out Alan’s recap of the Atlanta Braves Game 3 win.

Sunday evening, and into the night, had it all: dominating starting pitching with strikeouts and loopty loop curveballs, edge-of-your-seat at-bats, clutch hits, and it even involved yet another opposing pitcher throwing a bit of a fit because he couldn’t punch out Ronald Acuna Jr. (we’ll remember that little high-and-tight you threw, Carlos Martinez).

What more do you need?

Best of all, Game 3 on Sunday featured an Atlanta Braves win — a pivotal victory that now gives the Braves a 2-1 advantage in the series, the first time they’ve paced a postseason series since 2002.

On to the takeaways…

3. A super quick start

The first 3 innings of Sunday’s battle moved rather rapidly, as both Adam Wainwright and Mike Soroka worked efficiently.

Soroka’s only mistake during that stint was a lucky little flare off the bat of Marcell Ozuna, in the bottom of the 2nd — a softly hit bloop-drive over first base for a double. Two batters later, Matt Carpenter knocked Ozuna in with a sac-fly to center, giving the Cards an early yet uneventful 1-0 lead.

Wainwright was even more economical, mowing down the first three Braves with 16 pitches in the 1st inning and starting off the game with a nice three-up-three-down frame.

Surprisingly, the first three Wainwright strikeouts were with pitches 90 mph+, perhaps a statement by the veteran that he has more in his tool belt than a bunch of 70-something floating curveballs.

Altogether, innings 1-3 featured just one run from 2 hits — Ozuna’s double and Dansby Swanson‘s 3rd-inning double off the center field wall.

If you were late turning on the game, well… you probably missed the first three frames, as they were into the 4th inning in a hurry.

Soroka’s gem: Alan gets into more of the specifics in his recap, but the outing Soroka put together on Sunday was just incredible, especially coming right after Mike Foltynewicz‘s dominant start in Game 2.

It was an old vs. young matchup that really took off in a surprising way. Early on, Wainwright came out attacking the zone with high fastballs, only showing his curveball early in the count and seemingly never more than one or two in an at-bat.

But Soroka matched him tick for tack. In the 1st, Wainwright threw 15 pitches… Soroka needed just 13; in the 2nd, the veteran totaled 17 pitches… but Soroka only required 14; in the 3rd, Wainwright walked off the mound after 16 throws… the kid got out of there with just 12.

It was really cool to watch two players that are in opposite seasons of their respective pro careers. Wainwright has had an incredible run in the majors and it appears that Soroka has the potential to perhaps do even better.

I think we’ll eventually look back at this Game 3 NLDS start and declare it as a real statement start by Soroka — the big time October performance that set up a long prosperous major league career (if you’re all sentimental like me).