ATLANTA — There was nothing smooth or swift about how Matthew Liberatore reasserted his place in the rotation with a one-hitter Tuesday night, so why should be there anything simple about how the Cardinals finished it?

At the end of a difficult June, Liberatore held Atlanta to one run on one hit through five innings, but he had to tiptoe around trouble of his own making, just as the bullpen did to reward him with a win.

Atlanta got the tying run at least to the plate in the final two innings.

It got wild — literally with wild pitches — in the eighth, and then in the ninth Riley O’Brien extinguished the threat almost as quickly as it appeared. O’Brien pitched around a double in the ninth to secure a 5-3 victory at Truist Park and claim his 21st save of the season. Four innings by the bullpen, some of it high-wire, made a winner of Liberatore (4-5).

The Cardinals vaulted into the lead during a four-run fourth that began with Nelson Velazquez’s leadoff homer. In the lineup for the matchup against Atlanta lefty Martin Perez, Velazquez reached base safely three times, and his third homer of the season knotted the game, 1-1. Nathan Church pushed the Cardinals ahead with a three-run homer that same inning, and Masyn Winn walked, stole second and advanced on a wild pitch to create a run in the sixth that proved to be even more valuable later.

Atlanta got its leadoff hitter on base against Liberatore in five consecutive innings — every inning the lefty started after the first. A leadoff walk in the sixth inning was what ultimately nudged Liberatore from the start, but it was the previous innings that led to a bloated pinch count. But he did not yield many runs.

Liberatore teased trouble then neutralized it.

In the second inning, he struck out the side after walking two. Two more strikeouts in the third inning limited the Braves to a sacrifice fly to take a 1-0 lead. In the fourth and fifth innings, Liberatore walked the leadoff batter and hit the leadoff batter, respectively, and then retired the next three batters in order. The added work meant he threw 92 pitches to get 15 outs, and that gave the Cardinals reason to remove him in the sixth after walking the first batter.

The only hit Liberatore allowed was a leadoff single in the third to Atlanta’s No. 9 hitter Jorge Mateo. He stole second, took third on a wild pitch and scored on the fly out.

That was the only run he allowed.

And he navigated all of it with Ivan Herrera as his catcher for the first time this season.

Off the IL, into the fire

Recalled from his rehab assignment with Class AAA Memphis on Tuesday afternoon, Ryan Fernandez was immediately into the crucible that evening.

Fernandez’s first appearance since going on the injured list in the first week of June was in the eighth inning, and he entered with the trying run at the plate. Fernandez inherited two runners from lefty JoJo Romero, and there was nothing expedient about his inning. Fernandez spiked two wild pitches ton all a run to score, and he walked two batters to really make things interesting.

Clinging to a two-run lead, Fernandez walked back-to-back pinch hitters to bring Atlanta’s lineup back around to the top. Fernandez got a groundout to end the inning and maintain a lead one run slimmer than when he appeared.

Pachelbel’s Canon meets Church’s blast

When it’s his turn to play the soundtrack for an opponent’s walk to the batter’s box, Truist Park’s organist has yet to find a name he could not spin into a song, especially if it’s slightly, but warmly, sarcastic.

He would play holiday music to welcome Matt Holliday to the batter’s box, and he’d go for the deep cut with the Beatles’ “I am the Walrus” for Tommy Edman. (Eggman. Edman. Get it?) For rookie Blaze Jordan on Tuesday night, the organist pulled out the Billy Joel, “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” Herrera came to the plate to Van Halen, drawing of course from his first name, Ivan. And for Lars Nootbaar it was the slow burn beginning of “One” by Metallica.

Why?

The great Lars Ulrich is the drummer.

For Church, the organist leaned into his instrument’s roots.

During the at-bat, the organist played Pachelbel’s Canon in D, that classic, elegant entry music for a bride. But as Church walked to the plate, the organist played Wagner’s “Bridal Chorus.” You likely know it by its less formal name.

Here comes the bride.

And, with a swing, there went the ball.

Church shattered a tie game and launched the Cardinals out to a significant lead with a three-run homer off Perez. The blast punctuated a four-run fourth inning for the Cardinals and gave Liberatore his first lead to protect. Church’s sixth homer of the season came five batters and two singles after Velazquez tied the game with a leadoff homer.

Despite a power outage for some of the biggest bats in the Cardinals’ lineup, there has been jolts of assistance from elsewhere in recent games.

Jose Fermin hit the first home run of the previous homestand to tidy up a loss to the Marlins. On Sunday all of the Cardinals’ runs in a win came on Bryan Torres’ two-run homer. And, on Tuesday, Velazquez tied the game with his homer, and Church silenced the organ for a few moments with his. Church was the only of the four with homers to be in the opening day lineup, and two of the four, Velazquez and Torres, didn’t reach the majors until the second month of this season.

Relying on the bench and backups for power is not an easy tune to carry, but the Cardinals have been able to use it as a refrain.

Libby’s great escape

An official with the Cardinals recently pointed out that not all crooked numbers are the same — a two-run inning and a five-run inning are both crooked numbers, but one is more crooked than the other. Liberatore has been undone by the more-crooked variety.

In his first four starts of the June, Liberatore had an ERA greater than 10.00.

He pitched through the fifth inning only once, and as recently as June 18 allowed more runs (seven) than he collected outs (five). The struggles prompted questions about whether the Cardinals would stick with their opening day starter in the rotation or shift something around to give him a different look. Manager Oli Marmol doubted the effectiveness of having Liberatore follow an opener into a game. He repeatedly said they were going to “roll” with the rotation. The switch of catchers was discussed and done Tuesday.

The bigger key for Liberatore would be the crooked inning.

Could he contain it to a two instead of five?

Or, douse it for a zero?

“If he can find a way to limit damage in those innings that runs do score and not allow a big crooked number,” Marmol said before the game. “That’s part of it as well.”

And that was likely where the start hinged.

Liberatore invited trouble in the second inning by walking the first two batters he faced, Atlanta’s cleanup hitter Michael Harris II and No. 5 hitter Mauricio Dubon. But rather than yield to the big-inning that could spark, Liberatore muscled through the next three at-bats. He outlasted two of the hitters who took him deep into the count, and he did so by be willing to show them different looks.

Liberatore struck out three consecutive batters to end the inning, and he went a stretch against Atlanta with five consecutive strikeouts with a runner in scoring position.

In the second, with two runners on thanks to his walks, Liberatore won an eight-pitch at-bat against No. 6 hitter Eli White. At one point in the at-bat, Liberatore threw four consecutive four-seam fastballs, and then at the full-count snapped a slider to end it with a swing and a miss. The next batter, All-Star Austin Riley, also struck out on a slider. It was the seventh pitch of his at-bat and during it he saw Liberatore’s first curveball of the strikeout streak.

He threw two curves to Atlanta’s No. 8 hitter, catcher Joey Bart, and finished that at-bat in four pitches to close the inning and maroon two runners.

All three strikeouts finished with a slider.

But how Liberatore got made the strikeout possible.

Baldwin snaps funk

One of the best young catchers in the game and the National League’s reigning Rookie of the Year, Drake Baldwin entered Tuesday’s in the midst of Atlanta’s struggles.

The leadoff hitter and potentially their leading hitter, Baldwin started the game on a 0-for-33 plummet. His batting average spiraled 43 points to .255 through the previous nine games, and Atlanta, naturally, had difficulty winning many of those games. They started the series against the Cardinals with 12 losses in their previous 16 games.

Liberatore struck out Baldwin twice to push the second-year Brave to an 0 for 36.

It took a change at pitcher to change Baldwin’s results.

With a runner on and Romero into the game to face him, Baldwin singled up the middle and put in motion Atlanta’s one-run blip in the seventh inning. Baldwin’s first hit since June 17 moved a teammate into scoring position and Ozzie Albies brought him home to trim the Cardinals’ lead down to three runs.

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