On Monday the Mets and Cardinals started a 4-game series in St. Louis at Busch Stadium.
The Mets came into Monday’s contest with an 11-11 record, which put them tied for first in the NL East with the Washington Nationals. They are coming off a 3-game weekend series against the Phillies in Philadelphia, where they took two of three. They will look to keep the momentum going with Joey Lucchesi on the mound.
On the other hand, the Cardinals came into Monday with a 16-12 record and 1 game behind the Milwaukee Brewers for first place in the NL Central. They come into the 4-game series after sweeping a weekend series against their NL Central rivals, the Pittsburgh Pirates. Adam Wainwright will look to keep things going for the Cardinals as he gets the start on Monday.
Back and Forth Start
Adam Wainwright sat the Mets down 1-2-3 in the top of the first inning. The scoring started at the bottom of the first when Dylan Carlson put the Cardinals up 1-0. Carlson drove in Tommy Edman via a sacrifice fly to right field. Edman led the inning off with a triple.
The Mets would answer in the second inning. Pete Alonso would open the inning with a double to right field. Kevin Pillar would then single to left, which advanced Alonso to third; Pillar was able to advance to second off an error. The Cardinals decided to intentionally walk Jonathan Villar and load the bases. Wainwright would hit the next batter, Tomas Nido, and the Mets would tie the game 1-1. After striking out Joey Lucchesi, Wainwright would walk Jeff McNeil, and another Mets run would score, and they would take a 2-1 lead.
The Cardinals would tie the game at 2-2 win the bottom of the second inning. Harrison Bader tied the game by hitting a 439-foot homerun to deep left field.
Michael Conforto scored after Dominic Smith ground out to first to give the Mets a 3-2 lead in the third inning. Wainwright walked Conforto to start the third. Pete Alonso doubled to left, which advanced Conforto to third. Kevin Pillar hit a 2-run homerun later in the inning to extend the Mets lead to 5-2.
The Cardinals would answer in the bottom of the third. After Dylan Carlson and Paul Goldschmidt singles, Nolan Arenado came up to bat. Arenado would blast a homerun to deep left field and tie the game at 5-5. Paul DeJong would keep the momentum going by doubling after the Arenado homer. Tyler O’Neil then gave the Cardinals the 6-5 lead after he too doubled and drove in DeJong.
Mets starter Joey Lucchesi was pulled in the third. He allowed 7 hits, all 6 Cardinal runs and walked 1 batter.
Lights Out
After the third inning, both offenses went quiet. Both teams would mustard a hit here or there, but nothing would come of it.
Wainwright would shake off a rough start and go 5 innings on Monday night. Before handing the game off to the bullpen, Wainwright allowed 7 hits, 5 runs, walked 3, and struck out 5.
The Cardinals bullpen was incredible on Monday. In 4 innings of work, they did not allow a single hit. The Mets bullpen was also great as they allowed just 2 hits over 5 innings of work.
Alex Reyes would close the door in the ninth and earn his 8th save of the season.
What’s Next?
The Cardinals and Mets will play game 2 of their 4-game series on Tuesday. The Mets will look to bounce back with Jacob DeGrom on the mound. Johan Oviedo will look to keep the momentum going for the Cardinals.
The Mets will come into the second game of this series without hitting coaches Chili Davis and Tom Slater. Davis was in his third season as the hitting coach for the Mets. Slater had been the assistant hitting coach for the Mets for the past 4 years. Hugh Quattlebaum was named the new hitting coach, and Kevin Howard was named the new assistant hitting coach on Monday.
With the win, the Cardinals improve their record to 17-12 and are now tied for first place with the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central.
The Mets fall to 11-12 with the loss. They sit at 3rd place in the NL East, just a half game ahead of the Atlanta Braves.
