The Mets (63-62) defeated the St. Louis Cardinals (66-58) by a score of 7-4 tonight at Busch Stadium. With the win, the Mets now sit 3.5 games out of the second wild card spot.
Offense:
The Mets touched up Cardinals starter Jaime Garcia very early on, as Jose Reyes lead off the game with a walk and Asdrubal Cabrera followed up with a liner to left field.
Reyes and Cabrera pulled off a double steal, and were promptly driven in by a three-run jack off the bat of Wilmer Flores, who was batting cleanup for the Amazin’s tonight.
After the debacle in the bottom half of the first that saw the Red Birds tie the game, the Mets regained the lead in the second.
Travis d’Arnaud singled and was moved up to second on a sacrifice bunt from Robert Gsellman. Jose Reyes then hit a ball through the hole on the left side of the infield to bring around d’Arnaud.
Reyes advanced to second on the throw home, and then subsequently scored on an RBI double from Asdrubal Cabrera to make it 5-3 Mets at the time.
After a painless third in which the aforementioned Garcia struck out two, Justin Ruggiano took the lefty deep on a moonshot to central that traveled an estimated 461 feet.
The Mets tacked on an insurance run in the ninth inning, after Jose Reyes singled for his fourth hit of the night, Reyes advanced to second on a wild pitch. Yoenis Cespedes singled to put runners on the corners and James Loney drove in Reyes with a single to left to increase the lead to 7-4.
Pitching:
Jon Niese got the start for the Mets, but it was a short lived outing, as the southpaw left the game after just four batters after aggravating his knee.
Niese allowed two walks and an RBI single from Brandon Moss before exiting the game. Niese was replaced by righty Robert Gsellman, who was called up from Triple-A when Steven Matz hit the disabled list earlier this week.
Gsellman allowed the Cards to tie the game, giving up a run scoring double off of Mets killer Yadier Molina, and Jhonny Peralta drove in a run with a groundout.
Gsellman got out of the inning with his first major league strikeout to keep the game tied. All the runs scored were attributed to Niese.
in the second, Gsellman committed the Cardinal (no pun intended) sin of walking his opposition, but rolled a tailor-made double play to end the frame.
In the third, Gsellman put two runners on but got out of the inning on a masterpiece of a play from Asdrubal Cabrera who flipped the ball to T.J. Rivera to get the force at second.
Gsellman put two on again in the fourth, but was bailed out by another magnificent play from Asdrubal Cabrera, who caught a rocket off the bat of Stephen Piscotty.
In his debut, Gsellman’s final line has him going 3.2 innings, allowing zero runs on two hits, while walking three and striking out two.
Josh Smoker relieved Gsellman in the fifth and pitch two innings, allowing one run on a solo homer from Randal Grichuk and almost allowed another to Stephen Piscotty, but Yoenis Cespedes made a splendid catch to end the sixth.
Jerry Blevins started the seventh, and gave up a lead-off hit to Matt Carpenter, but struck out the next batter before being removed in favor of Jim Henderson, who put runners on first and third, but struck out Jedd Gyorko to end the inning. It was Henderson’s first appearance since June 18th.
Addison Reed flirted with disaster in the eighth putting the tying run on base and facing the go-ahead run, but got Matt Carpenter to fly out to end the inning.
Jeurys Familia came on to pitch the ninth inning, and recorded his 42nd save of the year to end a roller coaster of a game.
Game ball:
Robert Gsellman showed a lot of guile tonight, and stepped up big time in a spot where the Mets really needed him. A well earned victory in the young man’s major league debut.
On deck:
Jacob deGrom (7-6, 2.73 ERA) will look to rebound after the beatdown he got his last time out in San Francisco, and will be opposed by Carlos Martinez (11-7, 3.24 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 8:15 PM.
