New York Mets face 1-7 defeat against St. Louis Cardinals in Spring Training - MLB Update
Mike Pelfrey let the New York Mets down by conceding four earned runs as the club faced a thumping 1-7 defeat at the hands of St.Louis Cardinals at Digital Domain Park in Port St. Lucie, Florida during their Spring Training Grapefruit encounter on March
13, 2012.
While Cardinals kept adding runs inning by inning, Mets toiled for finding hits let alone runs. Excluding fourth inning where Daniel Murphy completed sole run of the Mets, Cardinals bundled them out scoreless in remaining innings.
Starter Pelfrey gave Mets a poor beginning and while he was hit for two homers in over four innings he threw the ball, he ended up conceding four runs alone.
"I tried to work on my fastball command -- I thought my command with my fastball was so bad last week -- and they came out swinging," Pelfrey said. "They were aggressive early in the count, and then we started throwing curveballs and cutters and changeups
first pitch, and I thought it got a lot better after that."
Apart from him and Ramon Ramirez, Mets saw a reasonably better performance from their pitchers as Garrett Olson went scoreless in more than two innings and similarly Manny Acosta and Bobby Parnell did not give up any run.
Adam Wainwright stood out from the Cardinals’ camp and proved the most difficult for the Mets. He went through initial three innings without giving up a run and while he allowed one walk, he managed one strike-out in the end. The way he recovered from a
slight fall in momentum in the second was commendable and the fact this was his first appearance since September 2010, he has certainly spelled positives for the Cardinals.
"When you look at the scoreboard it's just fine, but I wasn't really controlling my body real well, getting my arm in a position to throw the ball," Wainwright said.
Worst aspect of the match for the Mets is that if it was not for the sacrifice fly Lucas Duda managed to hurl, only run they had in the game would not have come.
Inability of their runners and batters to accumulate runs is a concern for the Mets. Sooner the players on the bases develop better co-ordination; the club will see more chances to score runs.
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