The Mets (12-10) defeated the Cardinals (12-11) by a score of 4-1 on Thursday afternoon at Citi Field.
Bartolo Colon took the ball for the Mets and was very solid, holding the Cardinals at bay while his belly rippled in the cool spring breeze. Bartolo held St Louis to 1 run on 4 hits in 7 innings, striking out 8 and walking none.
The game started off slowly, with both pitchers cruising through the first few innings. The action began to pick up in the 5th inning. The Cards struck first in the top of the 5th when Tony Cruz doubled home Kolten Wong. Chris Young answered back by leading off the bottom of the frame with a monster home run to left field, his first as a Met. The next hitter, Bobby Abreu, doubled down the line for his first hit as a Met, but Lance Lynn, who was pretty good for St Louis today, got out of the inning without allowing Abreu to score.
The Mets put up another tally in the next inning, when Eric Young reached on a throwing error and Murphy hit a double which fell just in front of a diving Jon Jay. David Wright was hit by a pitch to put men on 1st and 2nd with none out, but Lynn once again worked his way out of trouble.
The Mets scored again an inning later. Anthony Recker walked to lead off the inning and moved to second on a bunt by Ruben Tejada. Curtis Granderson came into the game to pinch hit for Colon and ripped a ball that got past the second baseman and allowed Recker to score. While it could have been ruled an error, the official scorer gave Grandy a hit and an RBI. However, Curtis was thrown out trying to advance to second on the throw home, meaning that he did not score on the ensuing Eric Young triple. Daniel Murphy hit a soft liner to left to score EY and cap the scoring for New York.
Carlos Torres, who seemingly pitches every day for the Mets, came in to start the 8th, and got himself into a jam by issuing 2 walks and only getting 2 outs. Scott Rice, who also seems to take the mound every day, came in and cleaned up Torres’ mess by getting Matt Adams to ground out and end the Cardinal threat.
Daisuke Matsuzaka came in for the 9th, looking for his first MLB Save. Dice-K pitched a 1-2-3 inning to wrap up the win and give the Mets a 3-1 series win over the Cardinals.
Granderson didn’t fail miserably today, and he looked pretty good last night as well. I’m seriously excited about this, guys. Let’s hope that he can gain some confidence and get on a roll… although I don’t get why he wasn’t in the starting lineup today after finally breaking his hitless skid last night.
I don’t know how Colon succeeds. He doesn’t throw hard, he basically only throws one pitch, and hitters know that nearly every pitch is going to be somewhere in the strike zone for them to hit. But anyway, on a sunny, weekday afternoon, I could sit and watch him pitch for hours. It’s quite enchanting…
As I mentioned in today’s Morning Grind, the Mets’ pitching staff has been fantastic lately, and they kept that up in this game, holding St Louis to just 1 run. The Mets hitters are still struggling a bit, but they looked pretty decent today. David Wright has fallen into another mini-slump after putting together a solid week or so, but he’ll most likely break out of it soon enough, and Granderson looks like he could be starting to come around. Chris Young has been impressive since returning from the DL, so hopefully he can stay healthy and keep contributing at the plate.
I like the Bobby Abreu signing. Sure, he’s no longer a star, but the Mets need veteran leadership on their bench, and guys like Rick Ankiel don’t count.
Jeurys Familia doesn’t really pitch anymore… I’d like to see him get some more action, or get sent down to the minors. He has potential, so I don’t want him to waste away on the bench…
Pitcher errors have been an epidemic. Each team had one today, and the Mets have had 4 already this season. If pitchers can throw fireballs into the strike zone, why can’t they make the easier throws to actual, moving people with gloves at the bases? I guess it’s just one of those things where logic doesn’t apply…
The Mets have been winning lately, they’re up over 500, and they look good. It’s been an exciting start to the season against some solid teams. Let’s hope they can keep it up.
Up next: The Mets will kick off a 3-game series against the Marlins on Friday night at Citi Field. Zack Wheeler (1-2, 4.63 ERA) will face off against Henderson Alvarez (1-2, 2.66 ERA) at 7:10 PM.
LGM!
