Cardinals outlast the Braves 2-1 early Saturday after a long rain delay

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ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jimmy Crooks homered in the eighth inning and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Atlanta Braves 2-1 early Saturday in a game that featured a 2-hour, 44-minute rain delay.

Crooks entered the game in the seventh as a defensive replacement, then hit his second home run off the season off Danny Young (0-1) 405 feet into the right-center field bleachers to break a 1-1 tie.

JoJo Romero (1-2) pitched a scoreless eighth inning, and Riley O’Brien pitched the ninth for his 23rd save of the season.

Jordan Walker hit an RBI single to right field off Didier Fuentes in the sixth inning to drive in JJ Wetherholt.

Mike Yastrzemski hit a double down the right field line off George Soriano and scored on Austin Riley’s single up the middle to give Atlanta a 1-0 lead in the fifth inning.

Ozzie Albies had a 1-2 count against Kyle Leahy when play was stopped at 8:02 p.m. in the top of the fourth inning because of the heavy rain that flooded the dugouts and the field. Geroge Soriano replaced Leahy after the rain delay and struck out Albies.

Braves starter Chris Sale had five strikeouts in three scoreless innings before play was stopped.

Braves first baseman Matt Olson played in his 741st consecutive game breaking Dale Murphy’s franchise record that was set in 1986.

Braves RHP Reynaldo López (4-1, 3.18 ERA) was scheduled to face Cardinals LHP Matthew Liberatore (4-6, 5.34) on Saturday night.

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