To end the fifth inning with two men in scoring position, Harrison Bader tracked Javier Báez’s deep fly to center, leaping and coming down with it, saving the 6-2 contest from becoming a 6-5 one. Beyond Jon Lester’s six innings of quality baseball, they made multiple impressive catches, keeping the game as distant as it was for all nine frames. The offense of the Cardinals will get most of the attention, and rightfully so, but the defense and pitching of the Red Birds shouldn’t be totally overlooked. Castro ended the messy fourth and breezed through the fifth in perfect fashion, while the Mets went scoreless, but not quietly in the same timeframe. Miguel Castro entered as the first of six relievers the Mets used, and to his credit, he was the best of the bunch. Pitching 3+ innings, nine Cardinals recorded hits, two walked, three struck out, and six scored on Megill’s watch. At that moment, Tylor Megill’s night was complete. Things somehow got worse from there as the shambling remains of Jon Lester doubled and moved to third on a throwing error from Javier Báez on Tommy Edman’s single. The first ball of the inning put in play was more in the stands than anything else as Harrison Bader homered sending the Cardinals back up by an additional run. If the first inning was the beginning of the end for Megill’s day, the fourth can only be known as the end of the end. Now, it almost definitely should’ve been the next three hitters, but Noted Umpire Abuser Edmundo Sosa flubbed Francisco Lindor’s grounder, sending McNeil home, but no further flubs found their way onto the diamond and the game remained 5-2 through three. Starting the third half as well, Jeff McNeil doubled, but much like the inning before, the next two hitters were quickly dispatched. Wearing Roberto Clemente’s number 21, Pete Alonso homered to start the second inning, his 33rd of the season, but three outs immediately followed. Fortunately, the Mets weren’t nearly as quiet over that span. To his credit, Tylor Megill had fairly calm and easy innings in the second and third, with an Arenado single being the only blemish. Jon Lester struck out, and that’s how you turn a 0-0 contest into a 5-0 affair in nine easy steps. Dylan Carlson singled to drive in a run and was followed by the same from Edmundo Sosa and Harrison Bader, the latter bringing two more runs home. Nolan Arenado walked but was erased on Molina’s GIDP.
If a blow-by-blow is your bag, Tommy Edman walked on four pitches to start the game and made his way home along with Paul Goldschmidt after consecutive doubles from Goldschmidt and Tyler O’Neill. In between the evening’s first pitch and the last to go past Lester, five men recorded hits, two walked, and five scored. Yadier Molina grounded into a double play, and Jon Lester struck out to end the inning. In his first inning of work, Tylor Megill faced all nine members of the Cardinals lineup, only barring two men from reaching base. Sticking until the end was bad, but in some ways the only thing worse was not.Īs I said before, this game was essentially over before most fans were even in their seats for the bottom half of the first inning. Wednesday night’s Mets-Cardinals game started off horribly and more or less remained in that particular zone of hopelessness and resignation to the bitter end, leaving just enough of a chance throughout for you to talk yourself into watching the entirety of the 11-4 contest.