Noah Syndergaard didn’t allow a hit until the bottom of the fourth inning and likely would’ve gone farther into the game on Thursday afternoon if not for shaky defense behind him. The St. Louis Cardinals capitalized on the defensive miscues in the 4-3 win over the Mets in 13 innings.

The right-hander had a shutout going until the seventh inning when Yoenis Cespedes had a ball go off his glove while attempting a sliding catch that went for a Tommy Pham double. After getting a ground out, Marcell Ozuna then hit a bloop single into right field that shrunk the Mets lead to 2-1.

Todd Frazier failed to make the play on a Paul DeJong hard hit ball later in the inning to put runners at second and third. The play was tough, but normally something we see Frazier make. Syndergaard got out of the jam though he had to throw eight pitches to Kolten Wong to do so.

Syndergaard came out for the eighth inning at 92 pitches and the bottom of the Cardinals lineup coming up. Amed Rosario committed an error on a groundball to start the frame. After a Matt Carpenter single moved the tying run to third base with one out, Syndergaard was lifted for Robert Gsellman.

Gsellman gave up a game-tying single to Pham before getting a double play to end the eighth inning tied at 2-2.

Syndergaard ended up allowing two runs (one earned) on six hits, zero walks and seven strikeouts in 7.1 innings. His changeup was the best it’s been this season and was a swing-and-miss pitch for him. He pounded the zone all day with 76 strikes out of his 101 pitches.

The fantastic outing by Syndergaard lowered his season ERA to 2.86 over his first six starts of the season.