The New York Mets (41-50) were defeated by the St. Louis Cardinals (46-47) by a score of 5-0 at Citi Field Tuesday evening.
Pitching:
Rafael Montero was on the mound for the Mets tonight and he pitched a very solid game.
Unfortunately, his defense let him down in the early innings and the Mets offense was non-existent on the night.
All in all, Montero went six innings allowing four runs (two earned) while walking one and striking out five.
In the top of the first inning, Matt Carpenter led off the game with a double to get things started for the Cardinals.
Next up was Tommy Pham and he was able to reach base on a throwing error by T.J. Rivera to put runners on the corners with nobody out.
After retiring Dexter Fowler on a pop-up, Jedd Gyorko was able to bring Carpenter home on a sacrifice fly to give the Cardinals an early 1-0 lead.
Things only got worse for Montero in the top of the second.
Mets killer, Paul DeJong got things started for the Cardinals with another lead off double.
Kolton Wong followed with a single to Jose Reyes that he misplayed to put runners on first and second with nobody out.
Magneuris Sierra followed with a single to right field to load the bases.
Michael Wacha then hit into what should have been a double play but Reyes took his time and Wacha was safe at first on the relay making the score 2-0 with only one away.
Matt Carpenter followed with a double to left field that Yoenis Cespedes really should have made a better effort on that made the score 3-0.
If that wasn’t enough, Tommy Pham hit a chopper to T.J. Rivera that took a bad hop that Rivera couldn’t handle to bring in one more and make the score 4-0.
That would be all the damage against Montero who was able to shut the Cardinals down through the sixth after the early inning woes.
Fernando Salas came in and pitched batting practice as he often does. Salas gave up three hits and an unearned run in two-thirds of an inning.
Josh Edgin and Neil Ramirez were able to combine to pitch a scoreless inning in the eighth. Hansel Robles was able to pitch a scoreless ninth.
Offense:
Michael Wacha had it all working tonight and completely shut the Mets bats down. Wacha pitched a complete game shutout allowing only three hits on 119 pitches. The lonely hits came from Micahel Conforto (two) and Yoenis Cespedes.
Notes:
Yoenis Cespedes has now gone 66 at-bats without a home run.
On Deck:
The Mets will play their third game of a four game set with the St. Louis Cardinals at Citi Field tomorrow evening. The game has a start time of 7:10 PM. Jacob deGrom (10-3, 3.48 ERA), will look to get the Mets a win against Mike Leake (6-7, 3.14 ERA).
