ATLANTA -- Just one day after putting up seven runs and taking Game 1 of the National League Division Series, the Cardinals found themselves silenced by Braves starter Mike Foltynewicz in Game 2.
A legitimate postseason pitchers¡¯ duel between Foltynewicz and Cardinals ace Jack Flaherty ended with the Cardinals on the wrong side of the 3-0 loss on Friday at SunTrust Park and heading back to St. Louis for Games 3 and 4 with the series tied at a game apiece.
That isn¡¯t a bad situation to be in for a club that went 50-31 at Busch Stadium during the season. In Division Series with the current 2-2-1 format, when the first two games are split, the club going home for Games 3-4 has gone on to win the series 21 of 34 times (62 percent). Adam Wainwright, who had a 2.56 ERA at home this year, will start Sunday¡¯s Game 3.
There¡¯s no better place to try to close out the best-of-five NLDS than Busch Stadium in October.
¡°This is big for us right now,¡± Kolten Wong said. ¡°We¡¯re going to need [the fans] to help us push through some tough innings and get two wins. We don¡¯t want to come back here.¡±
The Cardinals had a chance to return home with a 2-0 series lead, but they couldn¡¯t back up their ace. Flaherty held the Braves to one run until the seventh inning, when pinch-hitter Adam Duvall hit a two-out, two-strike, two-run homer to extend Atlanta¡¯s lead.
St. Louis managed just three hits against Foltynewicz in his seven innings. The right-hander -- who had a 1.73 ERA in his last seven starts of the season -- threw 36 sliders among his 81 pitches (44 percent) and fooled the Cardinals, who struck out seven times and didn¡¯t walk once.
¡°When you come against a guy who¡¯s on, a good pitcher is going to beat a good hitter nine out of 10 times,¡± Wong said. ¡°It¡¯s one of those things. [Foltynewicz] was on today. He wasn¡¯t making any mistakes around the middle. Everything he was throwing was touching the box. When you¡¯re touching the box like he is, man, you¡¯re just battling out there from pitch one.¡±
The offspeed deception continued a trend for the Cardinals. They hit just .197 on offspeed pitches this year (the worst in the Majors), while hitting 101 home runs off four-seam fastballs (tied for fourth in the NL).
Foltynewicz¡¯s game plan reflected that -- he threw only eight four-seam fastballs and 19 two-seamers on Friday.
¡°That¡¯s a different Folty,¡± Wong said. ¡°I think that¡¯s why he¡¯s seen the success that¡¯s coming with him. When he¡¯s got the three-pitch command like that, he can pop that 97 [mph fastball] whenever he wants. It makes him dangerous. It takes you off the fastball a little bit, and you have to respect the other pitches. When he¡¯s throwing all of them for strikes, it makes for a tough night.¡±
Once Foltynewicz established his slider early in the count, he kept the Cardinals guessing with a mix of his fastball and curveball, which he threw 13 times.
¡°Once you see guys taking big hacks at it on the first pitch, that was going to be the model for the whole team,¡± Foltynewicz said. ¡°They were aggressive, just taking big hacks on the slider, swings and misses. To be able to throw my slider -- I didn't throw my fastball too much, but when I did, it would get early outs, just because I threw my curveball and changeup just enough to keep them off balance.¡±
The Cardinals¡¯ problem with Foltynewicz¡¯s plan wasn¡¯t just the slider itself. It was the location. The Cardinals¡¯ strikeouts and quick outs typically come when they chase pitches around the zone. This lineup produces better when it finds pitches that are up in the zone. Foltynewicz didn¡¯t give them many.
¡°I won't say good pitching always beats good hitting,¡± Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said. ¡°But I will say that if the guys are locating their pitches and they've got a good sharp breaking ball, and it's on or under, it's coming out as a strike, it's on the plate as a strike, or it's on the corner, it's late and sharp, that's a tough thing to navigate.
But we want to hit more of the rolling breaking balls, the balls that are up. We just didn't get a lot of them today. But I have full confidence we'll be able to handle spin just fine, just make sure we're elevating and getting a ball we can take a better pass at.¡±
So what adjustments do Cardinals hitters need to make against breaking balls as the series continues?
¡°Hit them. There¡¯s not a magic solution," said slugger Paul Goldschmidt. "It doesn¡¯t really matter what pitch it is. When a guy makes a mistake, hit it hard. [We've] done that at times, other times we haven¡¯t. Have to do a little bit better job than today.¡±