Randal Grichuk belted a pair of homers to highlight his six-RBI performance in St. Louis’ 12-2 rout of New York on Saturday.
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New York Mets vs St. Louis Cardinals St.
The Mets put a runner on base in every inning except the first and had runners in scoring position in all nine extra innings.
And win they did, even as their woes at the plate sunk to new depths, reaching a new level of ineptitude.
Until the Cardinals play the Pirates on August 11th, they will only play one game (vs. the Royals) against a team with a winning record. Martinez wound up taking the loss when he allowed two runs on a Ruben Tejada sacrifice fly and an Eric Campbell squeeze in the bottom of the 18th.
“That’s not a good stat”, Collins said. Tejada hit a sacrifice fly to right fielder Grichuk, W.Flores scored, Granderson to third. Carlos Martinez (10-4) was pressed into relief and was the Cardinals’ eighth pitcher. He’s lost his last four decisions, posting a 6.18 ERA in that span, although he allowed 2 earned runs in 13 innings his last 2 starts prior to the break.
In an nearly unimaginable display of futility, the Mets (48-44) recorded 16 hits on Sunday and walked 13 times, yet only scratched across three runs. They failed in their first 15 chances before Kevin Plawecki notched an RBI single in the 13th for a 1-0 lead.
However, closer Jeurys Familia blew the save on his second pitch, second baseman Kolten Wong lofting a solo homer down the right field line that just avoided the leaping Granderson.
Earlier this summer, I wrote about the St. Louis Cardinals’ starting rotation and, while it’s easily one of the best in all of Major League Baseball, it might not be a bad idea to shore up the ranks with a midseason move.
“That wasn’t the Bartolo Colon we’ve known”, manager Terry Collins said.
“I know they are going to be chomping at the bit to have us come in there”, Collins said.
“We can sure use the off day”, said reliever, who worked four innings of one-run ball before Martinez’s appearance. It was the majors’ poorest showing with runners in scoring position since at least 1974. The game was scoreless until both teams got a run in the 13th. ESPN Stats & Info notes that the two teams combined to go 1-for-34 with RISP and left 39 combined runners on base. “We aren’t happy about that. I’ve never seen more flying helmets in my life”. The Cardinals were able to press a scoreless tie through 12 innings because of the pitching from starter Tim Cooney and a series of relievers, including a key scoreless eighth by rookie Sam Tuivailala.
This wasn’t the first time these teams endured a scoring drought against each other at Busch Stadium. Plawecki singled to right, Granderson scored. Cuddyer has five career home runs against Lackey, his most against any pitcher. 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 game.
The Cards are very tough to beat at home as the Mets have found out by losing the first 2 games in this series.
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Keuchel retired the final 18 batters he faced and surrendered only two baserunners: a two-out double to Prince Fielder in the first inning and a bloop leadoff single to Josh Hamilton in the second.
