By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The St. Louis Cardinals have had some bad luck this season when it comes to playing the New York Mets, and it continued Friday night in the series opener at Busch Stadium, as the Redbirds fell 9-3.
In a series last month in New York that ran April 17th through the 20th, St. Louis had one of their worst offensive stretches of the season, In the four-game series against the Mets, the Cardinals’ bats hit a big snag, going 22-for-129 (.171) with 43 strikeouts. Even worse, St. Louis went 4-for-27 (.148) with runners in scoring position during the four-game set.
The Cardinals didn’t fare much better in the opener, batting going 9 for 34 (.265) at the plate, striking out five times, they did battle early though with the Mets and took the first lead of the game in the opening inning. Lars Nootbaar doubled, and stole third base, and was driven in by Masyn Winn with a single. After Winn’s single though, Brendan Donovan flied out, Winn was caught stealing, and Nolan Arenado popped out to end the first.
The lead went back and forth through the first three innings, as New York took their first lead of the game in the second inning, Cardinals starter Sonny Gray loading the bases to start the inning walking Brandon Nimmo and giving up back to back singles to Jesse Winker and Mark Vientos. Jeff McNeil grounded into a force out, Vientos being thrown out at second, but was safe himself at first as Nimmo scored. In the next at bat McNeil found himself thrown out at second base as Fransisco Alvarez grounded into a force out, and reached first safely, Winker coming across home for the 2-1 lead.
St. Louis scored their final runs of the game in the third inning as they took the lead back for the final time. Victor Scott II singled opening the inning, and moved to second base on a groundout by Nootbaar. Moving to steal third base, a throwing error by Alvarez allowed Scott to come home to score and tie up the game. Winn singled, and then went first to third on a single in the next at bat by Donovan, before coming scoring the go ahead run thanks to a single by Willson Contreras.
The four run fifth inning by the Mets helped put the game away for good. Juan Soto doubled and scored on a two run home run by Pete Alonso. Nimmo and Winker hit back to back singles, Nimmo scoring on a forceout groundout by Vientos where Winker was thrown out at second. Vientos later scored on a single from Alvarez. Nimmo homered and Tyrone Taylor scored after doubling in the seventh inning to add insurance runs for New York. Taylor also scored on a sacrifice fly in the ninth inning.
Sonny Gray took the loss, falling to 3-1, pitching 4.1 innings and giving up six runs, only four earned, on nine hits, striking out six and walking three. Winn led the Cardinals at the plate going 3-4 with one RBI.
St. Louis will hope to turn their luck around tomorrow as the series against New York continues. Erick Fedde starts for the Cardinals against Tylor Megill for the Mets. First pitch is at 1:15pm, pregame coverage will be joined at 1:05 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.
