ATLANTA _ The Cardinals apologized en masse to Jack Flaherty on Tuesday night.
After leaving the right-hander of the short end of the stick by not scoring in either of his previous two starts, the Cardinals assaulted Atlanta pitching for 11 runs in the first five innings. Home runs by Marcell Ozuna, Dexter Fowler and Yadier Molina accounted for seven of those runs and Flaherty drove in one himself.
Then Kolten Wong added a third, three-run homer in the ninth as the Cardinals delivered a 14-3 tomahawk chop to the Braves at SunTrust Field.
Flaherty pitched no-hit ball for four innings before a succession of three soft hits by the Braves led to three runs in the fifth inning. He walked a season-high five and fanned six over six innings, throwing a high total of 109 pitches, as he gained his fourth win.
But Atlanta right-hander Mike Foltynewicz (0-3) now has given up 28 earned runs to the Cardinals in 25 innings, 27 of the runs coming in Atlanta as opposed to just one in two starts in St. Louis.
Foltynewicz, who went on the injured list with a right elbow bone spur in spring training, was tagged for eight runs, including the three homers in the first five innings. Molina knocked Foltynewicz out of the game in the fifth with a three-run bomb, the 150th homer of his career, to deep center to highlight a six-run inning.
