New York Mets edged out 5-6 by St. Louis Cardinals – MLB Update
The New York Mets lost 5-6 against St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday, September 21 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri to continue with their dismal form towards the end of the regular season.
Having sustained the third-spot in National League East throughout the season, the Mets are now virtually out of contention for that position, particularly after an impressive comeback by the Washington Nationals, who struggled to gather momentum earlier
in the season.
The Cardinals, fighting hard to grab a post-season berth, scored three runs in the first two innings to articulate their intentions. David Freese drove in a triple deep towards right-field in the first inning to allow Albert Pujols and Lance Berkman a run
each before Yadier Molina added a run in the second inning to give the home-side a three-run lead.
After having made an imposing start, the Cardinals showed signs of complacency when a fielding error by short-stop Rafael Furcal allowed Chris Schwinden and Jose Reyes to add a run each for the Mets and bring the deficit down to just one run. Josh Satin,
coming in as pinch hitter for Lucas Duda in the third inning, drove in a double to left-field to allow Angel Pagan and David Wright a run each and subsequently push the Mets to a one-run lead over the Cardinals.
However, Jaime Garcia was quick to restore his footing for the Cardinals, pitching 4.2 scoreless innings thereafter to keep the Mets at bay. Garcia pitched a total of 7.2 innings and struck-out five batters to win his 13th start of the season.
Jason Motte replaced him in the eighth inning to pitch a decent 1.1 innings, restricting the Mets to just one run and saving his eighth game of the season.
Trailing by one-run at the start of the seventh inning, Freese, adding to his two RBIs from the first inning, smashed a three-run home-run to right-field to allow Pujols and Berkman a run each and extend Cardinals’ advantage to two-runs.
Willie Harris produced a home-run for the Mets in the ninth inning, bringing the deficit down to one-run, but Motte did well to halt the momentum and bring the Cardinals in touching distance of a post-season spot.
Cardinals are just 1.5 games behind in the Wild Card standings with seven games to play in the regular season.
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