Over the past two days, the St. Louis Cardinals had outscored the New York Mets by a total run differential of 19-2. And on Thursday afternoon, the Cardinals looked to win the series against the Mets 3-1 at Citi Field.
But the Mets had other plans.
New York, with the help of two home runs from Lucas Duda, wound up defeating the Cardinals 5-0, splitting the series with St. Louis.
The two pitchers on the mound for the game were Jaime Garcia for the Cardinals, making his first start of the 2015 season, after dealing with injuries. And for the Mets, Jacob deGrom got the start on the mound.
In the first inning, deGrom struck out three, while allowing a single to Matt Carpenter. In the bottom half of the first inning, Garcia pitched well also, pitching a shutout inning, as the teams headed to the second still scoreless.
During the second inning, deGrom struck out both Randal Grichuk and Jason Heyward back to back, and Mark Reynolds followed that with a ground out. As for the Mets, after a walk to Michael Cuddyer, Garcia buckled down, not allowing a run in the inning.
As for deGrom, following the single in the first by Carpenter, he proceeded to pitch shutout baseball the rest of the way, getting out over 20 straight Cardinals batters. The final line of the young right-hander’s afternoon: 8 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 11 K.
Meanwhile, for Garcia, in the bottom of the fourth inning, Daniel Murphy singled, and following that, John Mayberry Jr. singled, and, with the catcher Duda already on base as well, he scored giving the Mets a 1-0 lead over the Cardinals. The game remained a 1-0 Mets lead until the bottom of the sixth inning, when Duda hit a solo home run to right center field, with Garcia still on the mound.
Garcia was finally taken out of the game in the bottom of the eighth inning after a good outing. His final line of the game: 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 5 BB, 3 K. 1 HR. Mitch Harris then entered the game in relief.
Curtis Granderson pinch-hit for deGrom, and walked. Juan Lagares hit into a force out, as Granderson ended up being thrown out at second. Wilmer Flores singled following that, and Randy Choate was brought in to face Duda. But Duda put the finishing touch on the game for New York with a three-run home run (his second home run of the day), to give them a 5-0 lead.
The Cardinals drop to 27-14 on the season, while the Mets improve to 24-18.
Lance Lynn will get the start tomorrow in Kansas City, as the famous “I-70 series” between the Cardinals and Royals begins once again.
(AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
