The New York Mets put together strong pitching with some welcome life at the plate to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals 7-3 at Clover Park. Jacob deGrom pitched four innings, allowing only one hit which was a home run, and was his usual dominant self.

The trio of Dellin Betances, Jeurys Familia, and Edwin Diaz each pitched an inning and were all effective, allowing no runs and no hits in their respective outings.

On the offensive side of things, Jeff McNeil, Robinson Cano and J.D. Davis each had multi-hit games, with Davis knocking in three runs. The regulars played about two-thirds of the game as Opening Day is just over two weeks away.

Pitching

Jacob deGrom took the mound for his second Grapefruit League appearance. He worked four innings and allowed only one hit. The hit was a fourth inning home run by Matt Carpenter, his second of the spring, to cut the Mets lead to 4-1. DeGrom faced 13 batters in his stint, one over the minimum, worked quickly and had command of all of his pitches.

Overall, deGrom went four innings, allowing one run on one hit, with no walks and three strikeouts. In two starts this spring deGrom’s stats are impressive: 7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 SO.

Dellin Betances came in to pitch the fifth trying to protect a 6-1 lead. It was his second appearance of the spring. He gave up a walk and was helped by a nice inning-ending running catch by Jake Marisnick to get through the frame unscathed.  He appeared to have better command of his pitches in this, his second outing. He maxed out at 91 mph on his fastball.

Jeurys Familia pitched the sixth inning and allowed a four-pitch walk to Carpenter but retired the Cards in the frame. Through six innings, Mets pitching has allowed only one hit to St. Louis.

Next on the mound was Edwin Diaz, making his third appearance. He pitched a 1-2-3 frame helped out by a nice infield play by first baseman Patrick Mazeika that ended the inning. Diaz’s fastball topped out at 99 mph.

The Cardinals bats woke up some in the eighth inning as they scored a run (and three hits) off of the Mets new pitcher, Brad Brach. Brach gave up a lead-off homer to Lane Thomas to cut the Mets lead to 7-2. It was Thomas’ third home run of the Grapefruit season. St. Louis loaded the bases with one out in the eighth but stranded them. With two outs, Mets manager Luis Rojas replaced Brach with Ryder Ryan who struck out Harrison Bader to end the threat.

In the ninth, Jacob Rhame entered the game and walked two. Joe Zanghi came in after two were out, and gave up an RBI hit to John Nogowski to account for the Cardinals third run.

Offense

The Mets managed 13 hits on Wednesday.

New York wasted little time in getting to Cardinals starter Carlos Martinez by scoring two in the first inning. Jeff McNeil was hit by a pitch to lead off the game. Amed Rosario followed with a walk. After Robinson Cano struck out, J.D. Davis stroked a line drive single to left to score McNeil. One batter later, former Cardinal Matt Adams singled to right to drive in Rosario and give New York a 2-0 lead.

In the third, the Mets scored another pair of runs to give them a 4-0 lead. With one out, Cano hit his third double of the spring.  The next batter was Davis, who deposited a three-two pitch over the wall in left-center for his first home run in Grapefruit League play. It was the third RBI of the game for Davis and his fourth this spring.

After St. Louis crept closer to 4-1 with a run in the top of the fourth, the Mets responded by scoring two more in the bottom of the frame to give them a 6-1 lead.

Marisnick led off with a single on the first pitch he saw. He stole second and scored on a two-out single by McNeil to make the score 5-1. After Cardinals manager Mike Shildt replaced Martinez with John Brebbia, Rosario walked. The next batter was Cano who lined his second hit of the game to score McNeil to extend the Mets lead. It was the sixth RBI of the spring for Cano.

The Mets strung together three consecutive singles in the seventh to give them a 7-1 advantage. Mazeika, Johneshwy Fargas and Ryan Cordell collected the hits. For Cordell, his RBI was his fourth of the spring.

On Deck

The Mets have Thursday off before traveling to Venice, Florida to face the Atlanta Braves on Friday. The two-time defending NL East champs Braves, like the Mets, have struggled to score runs in the Grapefruit League ranking near the bottom in all of baseball in runs scored. Steven Matz will start for the Mets. The game is at 1:05 p.m. and will be broadcast by Braves radio, WIFN 1340 AM/103.7FM.