Derek Lowe's early trouble doomed the Braves at Busch Stadium tonight. After giving up four runs in the first three innings, The Braves couldn't manage to claw back to tie it and fell by a score of 4-3.

In the bottom half of the first inning, Furcal led off the game for the Cardinals with a base hit. Following a stolen base and a groundout to move him to third, Pujols lined a ball past Prado to drive in the game's first run. David Freese later ripped one down the left field line to score Pujols and put St. Louis up by a score of 2-0. Then, in the third, back to back doubles by Holliday and Berkman chased home a run. Berkman crossed the plate when Yadier Molina grounded one up the middle to make the deficit 4-0.

Freddie Freeman did his part to draw the Braves closer to the Cardinals in the fourth. With Uggla on base, Freddie cranked a ball into the left center field seats for his 19th homer on the year. The Braves scored again in the fifth inning when Brian McCann drove in the Cardinal-killing Jason Bourn with a hot shot past Pujols.

Anthony Varvaro pitched a great seventh and eighth inning to keep the Braves' hopes alive. However, Fernando Salas and Jason Motte pitched well enough to seal the 4-3 win for the Cards. St Louis now sits just 5.5 games back of the Braves in the wild card. Atlanta will try to avoid their second straight sweep in a three game series tomorrow when Huddy takes the mound against Jake Westbrook.