Atlanta's Charlie Morton carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning and earned his first win against St. Louis since 2011 and the Braves shut out the visiting Cardinals 4-0 on Thursday.

Morton (6-3) pitched a season-high 7 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing three hits, two hit batters, no walks and seven strikeouts. He also put down a sacrifice bunt that enabled the Braves to add an insurance run.

Morton entered the game with a 2-12 career record against St. Louis. He had not beaten the Cardinals since April 4, 2011, when he was a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Paul Goldschmidt broke up Morton's no-hit bid with a sharp single to left with one out in the seventh.

The maligned Atlanta bullpen finished the shutout. Luke Jackson struck out Tommy Edman for the final out in the eighth inning, and closer Will Smith worked a perfect ninth in a non-save situation.

St. Louis starter John Gant (4-5) pitched 5 1/3 innings and allowed three runs on four hits, two walks and four strikeouts.

The Braves broke the scoreless tie in the fifth inning when Guillermo Heredia hit a solo homer, his third.

Atlanta added two runs in the sixth. Ronald Acuna Jr. walked, stole second and scored on Ozzie Albies' triple.

Albies came home when Abraham Almonte greeted incoming reliever Daniel Ponce de Leon with a double. It was Almonte's fifth double since Saturday.

The Braves scored again in the seventh when Heredia doubled, was sacrificed to third on Morton's bunt, and scored on Acuna's sacrifice fly. Heredia went 2-for-3 and scored two runs.

Acuna was 1-for-2 with a walk and has reached base safely in 25 straight games, the best active streak in the majors. St. Louis left fielder Tyler O'Neill was 0-for-3 and saw his career-best streak of reaching safely end at 22 games.

--Field Level Media