The St. Louis Cardinals earned each of their two NLDS victories against the Atlanta Braves by coming from behind, but they were not taking any chances with their season on the line in Game 5 on Wednesday afternoon. The Redbirds set a Division Series record by hanging 10 runs on the Braves in the first inning.

Braves starter Mike Foltynewicz got ahead of Cardinals leadoff man Dexter Fowler, but Fowler took a pair of close sliders off the dish and battled his way to a seven-pitch walk. The Cardinals immediately went to some small ball, as Kolten Wong sacrificed Fowler over to second base.

After Paul Goldschmidt reached on an infield single, Cardinals left fielder Marcell Ozuna–already hitting .500 during the series–singled to bring Fowler home. Foltynewicz should have been out of the inning when Yadier Molina hit a sharp ground ball to Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman, but Freeman booted the ball. From there, the floodgates were opened.

Foltynewicz walked Matt Carpenter to bring in another run, then Tommy Edman doubled down the line to give the Cardinals a commanding 4-0 lead. Braves manager Brian Snitker would go to his bullpen early, bringing in left-hander Max Fried. But the damage did not stop. Fried walked opposing pitcher Jack Flaherty, then gave up a pair of doubles to Fowler and Wong.

Even the good went bad for Atlanta. Fried got Ozuna to chase a sharp breaking ball for strike three, but catcher Brian McCann lost his balance trying to chase down the ball in the dirt, allowing Ozuna to reach base and Wong to cross the plate.

Molina would ground out to mercifully end the inning, but not before the Cardinals had blown this winner-take-all contest wide open.