The New York Mets (11-10) were defeated by the St. Louis Cardinals (12-9) by a score of 6-4 Sunday afternoon at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Pete Alonso, Robinson Cano, Noah Syndergaard, and Michael Conforto all socked solo home runs in the loss.

Offense

The Mets got going in the first inning thanks to another monstrous Pete Alonso home run, this one leaving his bat at 114.7 mph and traveling 444 feet to dead center field. The Dave Kingman-esque moonshot was his eighth of the season, but was sweeter for Alonso because he had played against Cardinals starter Dakota Hudson in college, having never recorded a hit in four at bats.

“I played against him in college,” Alonso said before the game. “I know him well, and I want to hit against him. Simple as that.”

After a quiet second inning, the Mets made Hudson work in the third after Brandon Nimmo grounded out to start the frame. Pete Alonso walked on five pitches ahead of Robinson Cano who singled to center field, pushing Alonso to third. Michael Conforto walked to load the bases, and Amed Rosario, batting fifth today, hit a weak one-hopper back to the pitcher. What should have been an easy 1-2-3 double play was de-railed when the pitcher’s throw home took Molina off the plate, forcing him to make a tag. Still with the bases loaded but now with two outs, Jeff McNeil flew down the right field line to end the inning.

The top of the fourth inning saw Dexter Fowler score an own goal. Noah Syndergaard hit a long fly ball to center field, and as a leaping Fowler tried to make a catch against the wall, the ball hit off his glove and over the wall for an aided home run. That made the score 5-2 at that point, and went in the books as Thor’s fifth career home run. Robinson Cano added another Mets run in the top of the fifth inning with a wall-scraping home run to left-center field, his third of the season.

John Brebbia came in to relieve the Cardinals starter Hudson who had gone five innings with three earned runs on five hits (three home runs), two walks, and five strikeouts. Brebbia hit Jeff McNeil with a pitch to start the inning before striking out Keon Broxton and Travis d’Arnaud back-to-back. Upon Dominic Smith being announced as the pinch-hitter for Noah Syndergaard, lefty Andrew Miller was brought in and immediately walked Smith on four pitches. With the tying run due up in the sixth inning, Mickey Callaway rolled the dice and pinch-hit J.D. Davis for lefty Brandon Nimmo against the tough southpaw pitcher.

A gamble in any case, but especially considering the Mets were carrying a four-man bench, Davis worked the count full before popping up to the second baseman Wong to end the inning. Davis stayed in the game at third base and McNeil grabbed his outfield glove to play left field.

Miller stayed in for the seventh inning to face Pete Alonso who he struck out before hitting Robinson Cano on the hand with a pitch, and a whole mess ensued. After hitting Cano, the ball caromed into fair territory where Miller picked it up and threw it to first while Callaway and the Mets trainer attended to Cano. After he was removed from the game, the camera cut to Callaway who was screaming at the third base umpire and while we could pick out some four-letter words he was saying, we did not know why he was arguing.

Did the umpire rule the ball fair and call Cano out? If he did, why weren’t the Mets challenging? Turns out the third base umpire said Cano swung at the ball, which he clearly did not. Callaway argued with him and got ejected before Juan Lagares came in to finish the at-bat. Already down two strikes, Lagares swung and missed at one pitch for the strikeout (which went on Cano’s record). Michael Conforto then avenged Callaway, pulling a solo home run over the right field wall to bring the Mets within two and knocking Miller from the game.

The Mets were quiet until the ninth inning when the Cardinals brought in laser-throwing Jordan Hicks. Wilson Ramos, the last man on the Mets bench, led off the inning and struck out on three pitches, the last of which a 101.5 mph sinker which he watched buzz by. A groundout by J.D. Davis brought Pete Alonso to the plate with two outs, and Hicks was paying close attention when he hit his come run earlier.

The first pitch to Alonso came in at 103.7 mph up out of the zone. A couple 102 and 103 mph sinkers later and Alonso had worked it full before turning around a 102.4 mph sinker for a base hit to center field (just 75 mph off the bat, in case you were wondering). With the Mets down to their final out, Juan Lagares came up representing the tying run. He fell behind 1-2 before striking out looking at a 104.2 mph sinker knee-high on the outside corner.

Pitching

After striking out three of the four batters he faced in the first inning, Mets starter Noah Syndergaard ran into some trouble in the second. After walking Jose Martinez, Yadier Molina singled to center field to put runners on first and second with nobody out. He then struck out Dexter Fowler, but then Kolten Wong slapped a base hit to left field. With Martinez attempting to score from second base, a good throw from Nimmo would have gotten him out by a few steps. However, the throw was a little up the first base line, allowing Martinez to score.

Dakota Hudson then dribbled a ball to Amed Rosario which he bobbled, allowing Hudson to reach base and load ’em up with one out. Matt Carpenter flew out to center field which may or may not have been deep enough for a sac fly, but as Broxton has a strong arm and Yadier Molina was at third, they did not try it. Another reason they didn’t send Molina was the guy on deck, Paul Goldschmidt, who ended up singling to center field to score two runs and give the Cardinals a 3-1 lead. Only the first run that scored in the second inning was earned for Syndergaard.

A walk, bloop single, RBI groundout, and Fowler double led to two earned runs in the third. A Goldschmidt infield hit and Marcell Ozuna double led to another run in the fourth. Syndergaard had thrown 85 pitches through four innings, but an eight-pitch fifth inning earned him his first 1-2-3 inning of the day. Though as he was due to hit in the sixth, he was lifted for a pinch hitter. Thor’s final line: 5.0 IP, 6 R, 4 ER, 8 H, 2 BB, 5 K, 93 pitches.

Robert Gsellman pitched a perfect 1-2-3 sixth inning and would have had another 1-2-3 inning in the seventh if it weren’t for an Amed Rosario error on a routine ground ball. He stayed in for the eighth inning and recorded another 1-2-3 inning, making that three hitless innings for Gsellman. He has not looked this sharp in a long time, as he lowered his season ERA from 3.27 to 2.57 and his season WHIP from 1.455 to 1.143. The Mets are in desperate need of a reliable reliever to pitch before the 8th inning, so this is a very promising sign from Rob.

On Deck

The Mets travel back home to take on the Phillies Monday night at 7:10 PM at Citi Field. New York will send Steven Matz (1-1, 4.96) to face off against Phillies’ starter Jake Arrieta (3-1, 2.25 ERA).