Mets Nearly Squander Scherzer Gem, Come Back to Clip Cards
Max and Mikolas battle, bullpen coughs up the lead, but those resilient Metsies strike again...
Two first-place teams. Two high-caliber starters. Star-studded lineups. Heck of a start to what should be a fun April series in Missouri.
Miles Mikolas came into the evening with a 1.76 ERA over his first three starts (13 K, 3 BB), showing off his deep repertoire (slider, sinker, curveball, four-seam, changeup) for the tied-for-first-place Cardinals.
Despite a middling start for St. Louis’ offense as a group (.693 OPS, 15th in MLB), third baseman Nolan Arenado entered the series hitting .364/.426/.727 and leading the majors in fWAR (1.5; rest of the offense has put up 1.3 fWAR combined).
Oh, and a total of five Cardinals defenders won NL Gold Glove Awards last season. Quite a lot going on for this team, per usual.
The Mets, of course, arrived in St. Louis having won 12 of their first 17 games with Max Scherzer — coming off a seven-inning, one-hit, 10-strikeout gem versus San Francisco — taking his hometown, Busch Stadium mound to kick off a three-gamer with the Redbirds.
Let’s get into it.
Scherzer worked around a baserunner (E5, wide throw) in a scoreless first. Check out Pete Alonso leaping into the netting to chase down this foul ball; A+ effort.
Eduardo Escobar made up for his fielding transgressions with a bloop single in the bottom half, his first hit since Thursday against the Giants. Mark Canha was hit by a pitch (caught his elbow guard) with two outs but Mikolas got Jeff McNeil swinging at a crisp slider to end the threat.
The Mets applying pressure early was not a sign of things to come against Mikolas as the night evolved.
Scherzer struck out the side in the second but found himself navigating traffic in the third (Tommy Edman walk, Paul Goldschmidt single) before striking out Tyler O’Neill with high cheese to leave both Cards stranded.
We even got a little fist pump after the punchout. Fun.
Mikolas found a little rhythm before Alonso singled with one out in the fourth but the Mets couldn’t capitalize. Robinson Cano, hitting .206/.250/.294 entering the night, popped out to the pitcher to end the inning. Gotta wonder how long this goes on before Billy Eppler & Co. consider cutting ties with the 39-year-old veteran. We shall see.
Jeff McNeil’s one-out double in the fifth went to waste, as did Alonso’s second hit of the night in the sixth and Mark Canha’s leadoff walk in the seventh, but Scherzer just kept trucking on, racking up 10 strikeouts through seven scoreless on 101 pitches (71 strikes).
Over his last two starts, Scherzer’s allowed one run on three hits with four walks and 20 strikeouts. Just dominant. And the Mets likely couldn’t be more appreciative.
At the time of publishing, the team had not yet provided an update on Jacob deGrom’s stress-reacted scapula. He was scheduled to receive an MRI on Monday.
Thankfully for New York, their rotation hasn’t felt the effect of Jake’s absence whatsoever. After Max’s pristine effort, the Mets’ starting five has a 2.29 ERA with 0.85 WHIP. That’ll play.
To his credit, Mikolas was just as nasty on Monday, holding the high-powered Mets offense to just four hits over seven shutout innings. Impressive all around. There was still plenty of baseball left, though.
Trevor May took the ball in the eighth (Genesis Cabrera set the Mets down in order in the top half) and immediately got into trouble, giving up consecutive singles to Harrison Bader and Yadier Molina, who both moved into scoring position on Edman’s misplayed comebacker to the mound.
May (6.75 ERA over his first five appearances) went after Goldschmidt with one out and took it to a full count but walked the bases loaded for O’Neill, who singled home two to give St. Louis a late 2-0 lead.
Ugh. We’ve seen this movie so many times. Though, maybe this incarnation of the Metropolitans really is a different brood.
Escobar lined a one-out single in the ninth off St. Louis closer Giovanny Gallegos (took second on defensive indifference), breathing life into this offense for the first time in hours.
Canó flew out, but Canha’s hot shot down the line induced a wide throw from the normally solid Arenado to plate Escobar. 2-1. OK.
McNeil doubled to put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position, and Dominic Smith hustled his ass off down the line to beat Goldy’s throw, allowing both runners to score and give the Mets a 3-2 lead.
Brandon Nimmo followed with a two-run homer off T.J. McFarland to make it a 5-2 game, Edwin Diaz closed it out, and that’s another win for the good guys. Unreal.
Chris Bassitt versus Jordan Hicks on Tuesday. See you then.
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