The Mets won game two against the Cardinals 2-1 in 20 innings. It was the longest victory in franchise history.

Game Notes

Who would have expected Jamie Garcia, a no name pitcher, to go toe-to-toe with a two time Cy Young award winner like Johan Santana? But that’s how it was with both pitchers throwing a gem of a game. Santana was dealing with 9 strikeouts, no runs, 1 walk and only gave up 4 hits. He did need 113 pitches though to get the job done. But that’s what I like to see. Santana looked like the Santana of old, pitching like the ace that he is. However, like in 2008, he gets a no decision because of no run support. One thing to notice about Santana was that he had trouble staying in the 90’s with his fastball. Maxing out at 91 on only four of his pitches.

The Mets bullpen was beautiful today. Igarashi, Feliciano, Nieve, Takahashi, Mejia, Valdez combine for 12 shutout innings and 9 strikeouts. Followed by Francisco Rodriguez finally getting a save opportunity but blew it and Mike Pelfrey got the save. His first career save.

Nieve came in during the tenth inning and walked Pujols on five pitches. Holliday walked up to the plate and hits a foul ball into the stands…or did he? Nope, not with Cora playing first after the double switch. (His third career appearance at first base). Cora dove into the first row of the stands to make the catch. Someone let Sportscenter know about that!

Garcia of St. Louis, who had only one emergency start with the Cardinals last season, had a great start for the Cards in the game. He had 7 scoreless innings against the Mets including a 5 inning no-hitter before Pagan finally broke the no-hitter with a broken bat single into center. However, the Mets had to wait until the twelfth inning by Luis Castillo. That’s how poor the offense was.

The first run came in the 19th inning with the bases loaded with two outs, and Joe Mather, a center fielder, pitching. Jeff Francoeur hits a sac fly to Kyle Lohse, a pitcher, in left field.

Side Game Notes

Mets had to use John Maine pinch run in the game and have Jon Niese pinch hit. That’s how long this game was.

Angel Pagan showed us that he still has the base running blunders that he had last year with running out of the tenth inning.

Pedro had to have an IV after a sudden illness that kept him out of the game yesterday. Glad to see him healthy and back in the game.

Mets had a combined 9 hits for 61 at-bats and a combined 16 strikeouts in the game, including three for Wright and the golden sombrero (4 Ks) for Bay. Bay now has 18 strikeouts in 45 at-bats this season.

Felipe Lopez, Cards short-stop, pitched an inning…no you read that right. He also got three outs without a single hit against him. Future Cy Young? And who do they hand the ball to? Joe Mather, the outfielder for two innings. Also, Lohse is in the outfield. Yeah, the pitcher.

Going 18 innings 0-0 was the longest nothing-nothing game ever played in Busch Stadium.

Shea Stadium was opened on this date in 1964.

Turning Point

When Cardinals decided to use Mather to pitch and allowed the Mets to score the winning run.

Game Ball

Biggest debate ever. There was Santana with a great start, Cora’s catch, Blanco with a great throw to keep the Mets alive, Pelfrey with the save. But I’m going with Hisanori Takahashi who saved the Mets with runners on second and third with no one out.

Up Next

John Maine (0-1) will go up against Adam Wainwright (1-0) in the rubber game on Sunday against the Cardinals.