Here are three things we gleaned from the Braves' 5-2 loss to the Cardinals, a defeat that marked the 10th time this month in which Atlanta scored just three runs or less.
In his first six starts with Atlanta (April 9-May 10), Santana was a true dynamo for the club, racking up a 4-0 record, 1.99 ERA and 1.01 WHIP.
Fast forward to Friday, as Santana surrendered five runs and 10 hits over five innings against the Cardinals, a subpar effort that raised his seasonal ERA 77 points.
Think about that for a second. Heading into the weekend, Santana had been so clean, so proficient, so tantalizingly good ... that any marginal effort would subsequently be viewed as major news.
Two frames later, with the Braves clinging to a 2-1 lead, another Santana wild pitch helped bring Craig home for a second time. The only saving grace: The Matt Adams double play essentially put the kibosh on a potential big inning for the Cardinals (22-20, 2nd place in NL Central).
The fifth inning would be Santana's ultimate undoing, even with the leadoff strikeout against Cards pitcher Lance Lynn. Back-to-back singles from Matt Carpenter and Kolten Wong set the table for Matt Holliday, whose opposite-field RBI double (scoring Carpenter and Wong) broke the game open.
Yadier Molina would be credited with a sacrifice-fly RBI two hitters later, cementing the Cardinals' fifth and final run.
Two wins, 2.10 ERA, 0.77 WHIP, 17/5 K-BB (30 combined innings)
With eight hits and two walks drawn, Atlanta (22-18, 1st place in National League East) certainly had opportunities to score against St. Louis pitcher Lance Lynn.
But three double plays -- including a strikeout-throwout in the first inning -- played an integral role in curtailing the Braves' scoring chances.
The execution fell short at times, too. In the second inning, just one batter before Tyler Pastornicky brought Andrelton Simmons home with an RBI single, the pitcher Santana squandered a double sacrifice attempt, allowing Lynn to easily get Chris Johnson out on a force play at third base.
If Santana gets the correct bunt down, instead of clanging a hard ball back to Lynn, perhaps the Pastornicky base hit drives two home. And maybe that leads to a big inning.
Instead, it was merely the most audible occurrence of a relatively quiet night for the Braves. In fact, from the sixth inning on, the Cardinals pitchers -- Lynn, Carlos Martinez, closer Trevor Rosenthal -- would face the minimum 12 batters in the Atlanta lineup.
When the month began, Johnson was hitting just .239 for the season and looking nothing like the Braves playmaker who flirted with the National League batting title in 2013 (.321 overall, eventually losing out to Colorado's Michael Cuddyer).
But Johnson has been a whirlwind of activity in May, collecting 22 hits in 15 games, while steadily moving up the charts of baseball's purest hitters. For the month, Johnson has a .400 batting average and a .400-plus on-base percentage.
Johnson (one run) tallied two hits on Friday, his eighth multiple-hit outing for the month.
On the flip side of that, the red-hot hitter never batted with runners in scoring position, minimizing his impact in a game that was certainly there for the taking.
At least early on.
