The New York Mets (58-66) and St. Louis Cardinals (54-70) continued their four-game series on Saturday night in St. Louis. Coming into Saturday night’s matchup, the Mets had won three games in a row and four of their last five games.

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After taking the first two games of their four-game set against the Cardinals, the Mets turned to Kodai Senga to keep their win streak alive. Miles Mikolas took the ball for the Cardinals as St. Louis was looking to avoid a series loss.

It was all-Mets all-night in St. Louis on Saturday as the Mets easily claimed the series win and the season-series win over the Cardinals by a score of 13-2. New York scored 13 runs on 13 hits against the Cardinals as the Mets’ offense unleashed on Saturday as they won their fourth game in a row.

The Mets’ strong offensive performance was combined with a great seven-inning outing for Senga who gave up just two hits and one run and struck out five. He earned his tenth win of the season with his win on Saturday.

The Mets got on the board in the top of the first inning. Francisco Lindor and Jeff McNeil hit back-to-back one-out singles, with Lindor advancing to third on McNeil’s single. Then, Daniel Vogelbach struck out for the second out, but McNeil trying to advance to second forced Andrew Knizner to overthrow second under pressure, allowing him to advance to second and Lindor to score on the error.

The Mets extended their lead in the top of the third. Lindor hit a two-out double to get the Mets started. He was followed by an RBI double by Jeff McNeil to right field that scored Lindor to extend the Mets’ lead over the Cardinals to 2-0. Alonso flew out to end the inning.

The Mets and Cardinals both had hitters send the ball deep in the fourth. Mets’ right-fielder DJ Stewart sent one to deep right-center field in the top of the fourth to extend the Mets’ lead to 3-0 over the Cardinals. Stewart, who was a former first-round draft pick, has been hot for the Mets since his call-up and has hit five home runs in 54 at-bats.

After the Cardinals scored in the fourth, the Mets opened the floodgates in the fifth. Brandon Nimmo walked with one out in the top of the fifth and was followed by a single by Lindor that advanced him to third to put two runners on. Two batters later with two outs, Pete Alonso walked to load the bases. It was then Vogelbach’s turn to homer, sending one way back to deep right-center field for a grand slam that scored Nimmo, Lindor, and Alonso and extended the Mets’ lead over the Cardinals to 7-1.

Vogelbach’s grand slam was enough to knock Mikolas out of the game as the Cardinals went to their bullpen in the fifth. It was another rough outing for Mikolas, who allowed seven earned runs on seven hits in 4 2/3 innings pitched against the Mets.

The Mets continued to open up their lead even more in the top of the seventh. McNeil hit his third hit of the game with two outs to start the Mets’ offense for the inning. He was then followed by a towering, long home run by Alonso, a two-run home run to deep center field that extended the Mets’ lead over the Cardinals to 9-1. That home run was the third longest home run hit out of Busch Stadium in the Stat Cast era.

Senga came back out for his seventh inning of work for the Mets in the bottom half of the inning. He continued to soar through the Cardinals lineup in the seventh as he retired the red birds in order on two strikeouts and a groundout. Senga was strolling as he gave the Mets the quality outing they needed from their starting pitcher. Through seven innings of work, he had five strikeouts.

The Mets extended their lead even more in the eighth as they had scored in six of eight innings. Stewart got the Mets started with a one-out walk that was followed by a single by Danny Mendick that advanced Stewart to second. Two batters later, with two outs, Tim Locastro pinch-hit for Nimmo and walked to load the bases. Lindor then came up and hit a single to third base (his fourth hit of a great day at the plate). Steward, Mendick, and Locastro all scored. Lindor advanced to second on a throwing error by Taylor Motter and the Mets led the Cardinals 12-1 heading into the bottom of the eighth.

The Mets went to their bullpen in the eighth after an outstanding seven innings of work by Senga. The Japanese starter struck out five batters and allowed only one run across seven innings of work. By eclipsing 150 strikeouts on the season tonight against the Cardinals, he became just the seventh pitcher in franchise history to record at least 150 strikeouts in their rookie season.

The Cardinals got one run back in the eighth. Knizner reached after being hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. With one out and Knizner now on second, Nittoli balked to advance Knizner to third. Two batters later Tommy Edman hit an infield RBI single to score Knizner. But the Mets still led the Cardinals 12-2 through eight innings.

The Mets extended their lead further in the ninth. Alonso welcomed Guillermo Zuñiga to the mound with a lead-off double to open the inning. Three batters later Stewart singled on his second hit of the day to drive in Alonso and make it a 13-2 game in St. Louis. Stewart had two RBIs on the day after that run was driven in.

After setting the side down in the eighth, Vinny Nittoli remained on the mound for the Mets in the ninth. He got into a little one-out trouble giving up a single and a double but retired the next two he faced to get out of the inning and solidify the Mets’ 13-2 win over the Cardinals on Saturday night.

Players of the Game

Francisco Lindor was the Metsmerized player of the game. Lindor was 4-for-5 on Saturday with a double, three singles, three runs scored, and an RBI. With his four-hit performance, Lindor raised his season OPS to .800 and reached the 75-RBI plateau.

On Deck

The Mets and Cardinals will close out their weekend and season series on Sunday in a 2:15 pm EDT matchup. Carlos Carrasco (3-6, 6.40 ERA) will get the ball for the Mets on Sunday against Dakota Hudson (4-0, 4.03 ERA) for the Cardinals.

The game will be televised on WPIX 11 and can be listened to on WCBS 880.