ATLANTA -- Not long after slotting Paul Goldschmidt into the No. 7 spot in the batting order for the first time there in nearly 12 years, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol told a story about a time when the star felt much more in tune with his approach to the plate.

“We were in Pittsburgh [in 2022] and when Goldy knows he’s feeling right, he knows,” Marmol said. “He hits a ball to left field for a double and he comes into the dugout and he’s shaking his head. He sits next to me, and I said, ‘You don’t like that?’ And he said, ‘That ball needs to be in the stands; I can’t miss that pitch.’

“[Goldschmidt] goes into the next at-bat and he gets the same pitch and hits it into the stands and sits down next to me and says, ‘That’s where that pitch needs to land.’ When he’s feeling good, that’s how the game is to him. He knows what he needs to do, and he does it. That’s not how the game has felt to him right now.”

On Sunday, after Goldschmidt homered in his first at-bat from the No. 7 hole and helped the Cardinals beat the Braves, 6-2, to capture the series, he finally started to resemble the dynamic hitter who won the National League Most Valuable Player Award less than two seasons ago. Goldschmidt woke the offense up in a big way, turning around a 98 mph four-seam fastball for a Statcast-projected 365-foot home run that slammed off the facade of the second deck in left field.

The Cardinals are hopeful that Goldschmidt’s 14th home run of the season -- one that snapped an 0-for-12 skid -- gets the slugger going again. He came into Sunday hitting .225 with just 37 RBIs. Right-handed pitchers had given him fits (.206 batting average) before homering off Atlanta’s Spencer Schwellenbach. Maybe the most alarming part of Goldschmidt’s struggles had been his lack of productivity with runners in scoring position, as he came into Sunday hitting just .169 with two extra-base hits in those critical spots.

Alec Burleson hit a mammoth 435-foot home run and drove in two more runs, extending his streak with an RBI to six straight games. It also gave him 41 RBIs since June 1 -- second only to Yankees superstar Aaron Judge for the most in that timeframe. Lars Nootbaar and Willson Contreras also hit solo home runs for St. Louis, who got six innings of two-run ball from veteran starting pitcher Miles Mikolas.