Flaherty has rare rough start in loss to Braves

The plan has been scripted out for weeks now and executed through the club’s fluid use of a sixth starter this month. It will all lead, the Cardinals hope, to a place where rookie Jack Flaherty is ready to take the ball in the team’s most crucial game. What Flaherty couldn’t do on Wednesday, however, was lift the Cardinals to a series sweep that would have inched them closer to needing the rookie right-hander on such a stage. Instead, the Braves took a 7-3 victory at SunTrust Park that snapped their four-game skid and ended the Cardinals’ eight-game winning streak in Atlanta.