Tommy Pham had one incredible weekend in Atlanta.  In his first three games back in the majors, Pham went 6-for-12 with three homers and five RBIs against the Braves  and hit the game deciding two-run homer off  Atlanta reliever Josh Collmenter to give the Cardinals a 6-4, 14-inning win on Sunday afternoon at SunTrust Park to complete the three-game sweep.

Pham put together a career-high four hits, including two homers, who made his season debut on Friday.

This game came down to the bullpen for both teams.  The Braves were solid and the Cardinals bent, but didn’t break.  Atlanta’s bullpen allowed just one hit over seven scoreless innings before Pham’s game-winner.  Meanwhile, the Braves stranded seven runners during the extra innings and lost on a replay review by inches in the 11th as Ender Inciarte was called out on his two-out, bases-loaded grounder to first after Seung Hwan Oh just beat Inciarte’s foot to the bag after fielding a high throw from Matt Carpenter.

However, the weekend belonged to Pham.

“I was joking around saying, ‘We don’t get paid for overtime, so let’s go.’ I was pumped to come through. It’s not like you can keep sending guys out to pitch in extras. Our bullpen is doing the job for us. They’re holding the game. We have to pick them up.”

The Cardinals have a nice advantage tonight when they open their series with the Toronto Blue Jays.

They Jays played last night in Anaheim with a game that ended just after midnight our time, meaning Toronto didn’t arrive in St. Louis until the early morning hours. The Cardinals had the day off and should be refreshed for the series opener tonight (7:15 p.m. first pitch).

Toronto will be without third baseman Josh Donaldson (calf) and shortstop Troy Tulowitzki (hamstring) both on the DL. The Blue Jays, the only team in the American League to score fewer runs than the Royals, have a 5-14 record, worst in the majors.

The Cardinals should have no troubles getting to a .500 record when they start Michael Wacha tonight opposite Marco Estrada.

Dexter Fowler hit his first two home runs for the St. Louis Cardinals, and finished with three hits, as the Cardinals swept the Pirates on Wednesday with their third straight 2-1 win.

Pirates’ first baseman Josh Bell  tied the game in the fourth with a homer off  Michael Wacha (2-1) after he retired his first ten batters.

The Cardinals improve to 6-9 after this sweep.

RHP Carlos Martinez (0-2, 3.57) will open a four-game series at Milwaukee on Thursday. He is 4-1 with 1.36 ERA in eight starts and 11 relief appearances against the Brewers.

Lance Lynn won his first start since 2015 as he pitched seven shutout innings and Kolten Wong chipped in with his first home run as the Cardinals ended a three-game losing streak, beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-1 Monday night at Busch Stadium.  The Cardinals improved to 4-9.

Mike Matheny was hoping to jump start the offense by tinkering with the lineup.  Greg Garcia got the start at third over Jhonny Peralta, but went 0-for-3.  Jose Martinez, hitting .500 before the game, went 1-for-3 and drove in the Cardinals insurance run in the seventh putting St. Louis up 2-0 on Ivan Nova.

Martinez was playing first as Matt Carpenter sat out with a swollen hand after taking a ground ball to his throwing hand in New York on Sunday.

Lynn (1-1) allowed three hits and struck out five while walking one. He also hit two batters, but he slowed a Pirates team that came in on a three-game win streak, sweeping the Cubs.

Lance Lynn gave up six runs (only four earned) in five innings, including three homers, as the Cardinals lost 8-3 to the Washington Nationals in D.C. Randal Grichuk and Aledmys Diaz homered for St. Louis, which has dropped three straight.

The Cardinals couldn’t get Daniel Murphy out, Washington’s cleanup hitter. He went 4-for-5 with a homer and five runs driven, singling in two with the bases loaded in the bottom of the third to make it a 2-1 game.  Grichuk homered to knot the game at 2-2 in the fourth, but Lynn gave up homers to  Jayson Werth and Matt Wieters to make it a 4-2 game.  After Lynn walked Bryce Harper (three base on balls for the game), Murphy homered to make it 6-2.

A Diaz throwing error led to another Nationals run the seventh and Murphy brought home Harper in the eighth on back-to-back two-out doubles.

The Cardinals bullpen is last in the majors with an 8.14 ERA.

The Cardinals have dropped three in-a-row and six-of-seven to fall to 2-6.

Mike Leake tries to get the final game of this series when he starts the 3:05 CDT game for St. Louis.  Washington will start St. Charles native Max Scherzer, the reigning National League Cy Young winner.

The Cardinals were limited by Scott Feldman and two relievers as they combined to pitch a six-hit shutout as the Cardinals lost 8-0, in St. Louis to wrap up their first homestand of the season at 2-4.

Feldman struck out six over six-plus innings and gave up four hits.  Adam Duvall and Joey Votto left the yard, and Zack Cozart had an RBI-triple as Cincinnati got to Carlos Martinez who gave up six hits and six runs, five earned.  The Cards have dropped four of their past five games.

The Cardinals play their first road game Monday in Washington. Last season, the Nationals swept three games against St. Louis in Washington, winning 5-4, 6-1 and 6-1 in a series that ended May 1. The Cardinals won two of four games in late May in St. Louis, with Wainwright getting the win in the third game of the series.

Adam Wainwright will start.  He gave up two runs in five innings against the Chicago Cubs.

“I had good stuff,” Wainwright said. “I’ve got to hone a little bit better. I got strike one good tonight. I need to attack a little better after strike one. My stuff was good, just got to go out there and be aggressive with it and let them put the ball in play.”

Adam Wainwright’s curveball was sharp and his inside fastball was jamming Cubs hitters.  Through the first three innings he was rolling along until Chicago scratched out two runs in the fourth inning to hold on for a 2-1 win to even this opening series at Busch Stadium on Tuesday night.  The series concludes Wednesday afternoon starting at 12:45.

Wainwright allowed three hits and two walks in five innings while striking out six.  Wainwright gave up a one out double to Addison Russell and walked Willson Contreras.  Jason Heyward blooped a single over the head of shortstop Aledmys Diaz and Randal Grichuk made an ill-advised late throw home allowing Contreras to move to third.

“That’s not a no-brainer there. If you’ve got a two-run lead and you know that run is scoring, then maybe you could come up and maybe fire to third base. For a guy (Grichuk) to pick up exactly where that runner is and what kind of jump he got, that’s asking too much. If he air-mails a ball, that’s a different story. But it was a good throw.”

Wainwright was slow in reacting to a safety squeeze bunt by Javier Baez as Contreras slide just ahead of a tag by Yadier Molina at the plate to make it 2-0.

Jake Arrieta also struck out six and held the Cardinals to four hits and two walks.  It was a rough fifth inning for Stephen Piscotty.  After getting hit on the right elbow by Arrieta, he was hit on the left elbow by Contreras as he was stealing second base.  After Kolten Wong reached on an infield single, Baez fumbled the ball and Piscotty raced home from third and was hit by Baez’s throw in the ear flap of his helmet.  After laying on the ground for several moments, Piscotty was helped up and sent for concussion protocol.

“The trainers asked him a lot of questions,” Matheny said. “He answered everything fine. It just rang his bell, which we will find out what exactly that means when doctors give him better tests than us asking him questions on the field. He was coherent.”

The unearned run was the only run scored by the Cardinals.