ATLANTA — The first walk of the season allowed by reliever Phil Maton proved the spark that led to a bonfire the St. Louis Cardinals could not contain in the eighth inning.

With the Cardinals holding tight to a one-run lead earned in the sixth inning, the Atlanta Braves spun an infield single, two walks and a sacrifice fly into a lead, and did not stop there. Atlanta blitzed the Cardinals’ bullpen for five runs to not just take a lead, but momentarily warp the look of what otherwise was a close, taut game. Willson Contreras’ two-run homer paired with Victor Scott II’s RBI double retightened the game before the Cardinals lost, 7-6, on Monday at Truist Park.

The Cardinals have lost 10 of their first 11 road games.

Nolan Gorman’s second hit of the game broke a 2-2 tie in the sixth inning and following starter Erick Fedde’s quality work gave the Cardinals a chance to secure a win and slow one of the worst road starts in club history. They hopscotched quickly through the seventh and got the ball to their best setup man, Maton. The veteran had not allowed an earned run or a walk in any of his 12 appearances this season.

He would allow both in multiples in the eighth.

Atlanta challenged the out call on Austin Riley’s groundball and replay overturned it for a single. Marcell Ozuna got the first walk of the season from Maton, and the next batter, Matt Olson, tied the game with an RBI single to third. When Ozzie Albies followed with a walk, manager Oliver Marmol went out to relieve Maton with the bases loaded. Marmol took the opportunity to comment, colorfully, on home-plate umpire Mark Carlson’s opinion of the ball four to Albies.

That got Marmol ejected for the first time this season and 16th time in his career.

Atlanta bounced the Cardinals from there.

Michael Harris II’s sacrifice fly off lefty JoJo Romero added a run, and then Sean Murphy swept the bases clean with his three-run homer. That hit appeared to be the one that turned the eighth into a runaway, but it proved an essential firewall against the Cardinals’ rally. The Cardinals got the tying run on base before the game ended with a confusing pay that Nolan Arenado thought was a foul ball until Carlson called it fair and Murphy tagged him out.

During their five-game losing streak, the Cardinals have allowed the deciding run in their opponents’ final at-bat three times.

Did Leahy seize the seventh?

The Cardinals are auditioning possible setup relievers to fill-in or take over for Ryan Fernandez in the seventh inning ahead of the veteran duo, Maton and Ryan Helsley.

Early Monday afternoon, Marmol said Kyle Leahy would get the next crack at the role if the right opportunity presented itself. Within hours it was there. The Cardinals led by Gorman’s RBI and they had the seventh inning to clear before getting to the final two innings and the right-handers lurking or lefty Romero waiting.

It was a situation tailor-made for a setup test.

Seventh inning.

One-run lead.

And the back third of Atlanta’s lineup due up.

Leahy eased through it.

The right-hander retired all three batters he faced without the ball leaving the reach of an infielder. He struck out the All-Star in the mix by bending two sliders past Murphy and dotting one fastball for a called strike. Murphy went reaching for the second of the sweeping sliders to strike out for the first out of the inning. Leahy got a groundout and a popup in foul territory to complete the scoreless inning and turn the lead over to Maton.

Cardinals capitalize on error for lead

Gorman’s first hit – a double into the right-center gap – came with two outs and the inning could have ended soon after, if not for a some shenanigans by Atlanta’s infield.

An error from first baseman Olson allowed the Cardinals to turn Pedro Pages’ single to right field into a two-run burst and what felt like the Cardinals’ first lead of the road trip after four consecutive losses to the New York Mets. When he tried to get Gorman straying past third, Olson throw was wide and the error pinballed around. Instead of retreating to third, Gorman scored from it, and Pages eventually reached third. He scored on Scott II’s infield single to shortstop for a 2-0 lead.

At the ballpark where he sat in the stands and predicted that he would play big-league baseball there, Atlanta native Scott had singles in his first two at-bats.

He stole second in the second inning to improve to 8 for 8 in attempts this season.

He was stranded there in the second inning. He never got to second in the fifth inning. And the Cardinals had a series of potential rallies dissolve in the middle innings. Scott was one of three leadoff hitters to reach base for the Cardinals from the third through the sixth inning. Scott in the fifth and Willson Contreras in the third did not get past second before being stranded. The Cardinals did not pounce on an opportunity with a leadoff hitter on base until Arenado’s double in the sixth.

Walker’s sizzling liner ignites rally

Statcast data would show that ball left Jordan Walker’s bat at 112.5 mph.

It got to Albies' glove at only slightly slower.

And it did not stay put there for long.

The hardest hit ball thus far in the game, lasered to Atlanta’s second baseman, and he appeared to snare it for the second out of the inning. He had an eye on possible turning a double play, but that ended almost as quickly as the ball got to him. The baseball rattled out of Albies’ glove and dropped, freezing Arenado at second but putting a rally in motion by getting Walker to first and keeping the inning going.

Gorman followed with his tie-breaking single to center that scored Arenado.

Atlanta answers with authority

With a second look at Fedde, Austin Riley hoisted Atlanta back into the game with his sixth homer of the season. Fedde invited trouble with a leadoff walk to Alex Verdugo. The right-hander got back in the count against Rile with a cutter and then misplaced a sinker right into the third baseman’s hot zone. Riley launched the pitch 412 feet – well beyond the left-field wall and Cardinals bullpen – and drove the game into a 2-2 tie.

With help from two double plays, Fedde got 12 outs from the next 13 batters he faced, and by the time he turned the ball over to the bullpen, the Cardinals had the lead.

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