ST. LOUIS (AP) — A little lineup tweak is working out quite well for Dansby Swanson and the Atlanta Braves.

Swanson homered twice and Freddie Freeman also connected, helping Mike Foltynewicz and Atlanta beat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-2 on Friday night.

The Braves improved to 11-3 since manager Brian Snitker put Swanson in the No. 2 slot ahead of Freeman on May 10.

“I think we help each other a lot,” Swanson said. “I would like to think that I help him, especially if I’m on base, that he would be able to get pitched differently. But having him hit behind me is fun.”

Swanson drove Miles Mikolas’ first pitch of the sixth inning over the wall in left, giving Atlanta a 2-1 lead. Freeman then hit his 13th homer, giving Atlanta its third set of back-to-back homers this season.

“Completely different than last year,” Freeman said about Swanson, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 amateur draft. “He’s staying on pitches a lot longer, seeing balls a lot longer, and putting the barrel on the ball. He’s been huge for us.”

Foltynewicz (1-3) allowed an unearned run in six innings in his first win since Sept. 28. The right-hander struck out seven and walked none.

Mikolas (4-5) matched his career high with nine strikeouts in seven innings. He was charged with three runs and seven hits while exceeding his number of losses from all of last season.

Atlanta grabbed the lead when Brian McCann scored on Ronald Acuña Jr.’s double play in the third. St. Louis tied it in the bottom half.

Kolten Wong reached second on rookie Austin Riley’s error. Harrison Bader then tripled to center off Acuña’s glove, but he was tagged out after being caught in a rundown between third and home when Foltynewicz cut off the throw to the plate.

UP NEXT

Braves RHP Mike Soroka (5-1, 1.01 ERA) faces Cardinals RHP Dakota Hudson (3-3, 4.30 ERA) on Saturday night. Soroka allowed three hits in seven scoreless innings in his only previous outing versus St. Louis on May 15.