Cardinals Drop Mets 9-2
Over the weekend the Mets got swept by the worst team in baseball (does that now make the Mets the worst team? That’s a question for another day.). Tuesday they played the best team in baseball, the Cardinals. Can you guess the outcome?
The Mets jumped on 21-year-old rookie Michael Wacha, making just the third start of his career. With one out in the first inning Omar Quintanilla hit a line drive into the seats in right field to give the Mets a 1-0 lead. David Wright walked, Daniel Murphy got an infield single and Lucas Duda walked to load the bases. Marlon Byrd hit a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 2-0. John Buck walked to load the bases again, but Kirk Nieuwenhuis grounded out to end the inning.
Matt Holliday led off the fourth inning with a single. Allen Craig followed with a double to put runners in first and third with no outs. Matt Adams grounded into a double play, but Holliday scored to cut the Mets lead to 2-1. Jeremy Hefner got David Freese to ground out to escape an inning that could have been far worse.
No, that would come in the fifth. Jon Jay led off with a grounder that Daniel Murphy, playing his first game at first base this season, could not handle. He knocked it down but then rushed the throw, sailing it over Hefner’s head for an error. Pete Kozma doubled to put runners on second and third with no outs. Wacha grounded out to plate the tying run and move Kozma to third. Yadier Molina hit a ground ball to Wright. It looked like it would be an inning-ending double play, but the ball came up on Wright. He knocked it down and was able to throw out Molina, but a run scored to make it 3-2. Holliday hit a sharp grounder to short. Quintanilla made a great play on it, but he couldn’t throw out Holliday. Then the big blow — Craig with a three-run homer to left to make it 6-2. All of the runs were unearned.
Hefner went six innings, allowing just one earned run on eight hits with two strikeouts and a walk. His record fell to 1-6.
Facing Greg Burke in the seventh, Molina hit a fly ball to Nieuwenhuis, who had just moved to right from center. The ball hit off of his glove for a two-base error. Holliday singled to score Molina to make it 7-2. The Cards loaded the bases with two outs and Terry Collins decided that would be a good situation to insert Josh Edgin into the game, fresh from being recalled from the minors. Of course he walked his first batter to force in a run, making it 8-2 Cardinals. So much for easing a guy back in.
Jordany Valdespin had two hits on the night in his first chance to prove himself as an every day player.
Mets lose 9-2.