Though the Mets came through to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals 3-1 on Sunday afternoon, it was hard to come away feeling like it was much of a success.
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In a game that won’t be shown any time soon on “Mets Classics, ” New York outlasted the Cardinals, 3-1, on Sunday at Busch Stadium to salvage the last game of this three-game set.
The game took five hours and 56 minutes and was knotted at 0-0 until both teams scored in the 13th.
Mark Teixeira’s 23rd home run of the season gave the New York Yankees a 2-1 win over the Seattle Mariners as they pulled four games clear in the AL East. It took enduring failure after failure with runners in scoring position.
With the Los Angeles Angels rained out against the Boston Red Sox, the Houston Astros moved to within one game of the AL West summit with a 10-0 rout of the Texas Rangers in which Dallas Keuchel struck out 13 in seven innings.
“That’s not a good stat”, Collins said. “Not something to be proud of but you get the “W” and it makes everything else better”. Plawecki safe at first on a sacrifice plus pitcher C.Martinez’s fielding error, W.Flores to third, Granderson to second. Tejada followed with his deep fly and Campbell then bunted.
Three times the Cardinals got the winning runner to second.
Carlos Torres (3-4), the Mets’ seventh pitcher, worked a clean 18th to wrap up the win.
Ruben Tejada broke the 1-1 deadlock with a sacrifice fly in the 18th after the Mets had loaded the bases with nobody out against Carlos Martinez, a starting pitcher pressed into service because the Cardinals had no relievers remaining. He’s lost his last four decisions, posting a 6.18 ERA in that span, although he allowed two earned runs in 13 innings his last two starts prior to the break.
“We’ve had a few extra-inning games”, Collins said. The Cardinals would win the game 12-2 while Jason Heyward would get five hits including two RBIs. All five hits allowed by Niese were singles and only one runner reached third base against him. In the bottom of the inning, Kolten Wong lofted a solo home run off Mets closer Jeurys Familia. But they failed to convert, just as the Cardinals, who went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position while leaving 14 on base. This next stretch of games could help St. Louis build on their 4.5 game lead. The futile hitting with runners in scoring position was the majors’ worst since at least 1974. “We aren’t happy about that”. The Cardinals started Sunday looking to catch some breaks, and instead exhausted what they had in a loss.
“I’ve never seen more flying helmets going down that runway”, Collins said.
“It was a lot of fun, a lot of yelling, a lot of celebrating”, said Jonathon Niese, whose 7 2/3 scoreless innings were wasted by an offense that eclipsed its own lofty standards of futility.
But in the 13th, Plawecki slapped a ground ball single off Cardinals reliever Carlos Villanueva to score Granderson.
Duffy (4-4) gave up rookie Tyler Saladino’s leadoff drive in the ninth for his first career homer. Jhonny Peralta singled with one out and went to third on a two-out double by Yadier Molina before Familia struck out Tommy Pham to extend the contest.
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Mets: Cuddyer says he’ll probably have to deal with a left knee bone bruise the rest of the season. He was removed after singling in the eighth, perhaps because he fouled a pitch off his leg earlier in the at-bat. Heyward also has been dealing with a head cold that Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said has been making the rounds through the clubhouse. UP NEXT Mets: Trailing Washington by two games in the NL East, New York opens a three-game series Monday at Nationals Park.
