The Mets began their homestand on a sour note, falling the the Cardinals 7-0 at Citi Field. Six of those seven runs were surrendered by Freddy Peralta (four of them in a single inning), who had one of his worst starts of the season. Meanwhile, the Mets failed to get anything of substance going against Dustin May, failing to capitalize on opportunities, as has been the case so often this season.
After a relatively easy first inning for both pitchers, AJ Ewing laced a one-out double in the second to
become the Mets’ first baserunner. Ewing would go on to be the only Met to have a multi-hit game this evening. A passed ball by rookie catcher Jimmy Crooks advanced Ewing to third, but May struck out Marcus Semien and Brett Baty back-to-back to neutralize the early threat.
The Cardinals then proceeded to drop a four spot on Freddy Peralta in the third. Peralta walked Nolan Gorman to lead off the inning and then Nathan Church doubled to put runners at second and third and nobody out. Rookie JJ Wetherholt then laced a single to score both runners and put the Cardinals on the board. Peralta then hit Iván Herrera with the a pitch before finally striking out Alec Burleson for the first out of the inning. But Jordan Walker then doubled to score Wetherholt and extend the Cardinals lead to 3-0. Lars Nootbaar then hit a grounder to second and Marcus Semien appropriately looked the runners back before throwing to first base, but Iván Herrera broke home on the throw anyway and beat out the play at the plate to make it 4-0 Cardinals.
The Mets had at least one runner on base in each of the next two innings, giving them a chance to chip away, but failed to capitalize each time. In his first at-bat back from the injured list, Francisco Alvarez singled with one out in the third, but was unfortunately promptly erased on a double play by Carson Benge. Juan Soto broke an 0-for-16 skid with a one-out single in the fourth for the Mets’ third hit. Jared Young threatened to end that rally with a double play as well, but the Mets challenged the out call at first base and the call was overturned, placing Young safely at first base. Marcus Semien then gave one a ride, but Nathan Church made an excellent basket catch on the warning track in center field after getting turned around multiple times before the ball found its way into his glove.
The Cardinals added to their lead further in the fifth when Iván Herrera blooped a one-out single in front of A.J. Ewing, who broke back initially and then couldn’t recover in time as the ball dropped in front of him—a rare miscue for Ewing in center field. Alec Burleson made the Mets pay by launching a two-run homer over the left-center field wall to extend the Cardinals’ lead to 6-0. Despite elevated pitch counts, both starting pitchers got through six innings. The Cardinals tacked on yet another run against Joey Gerber in the seventh in the form of back-to-back doubles by Herrera, who reached base five times on the night for the first time in his career, and Burleson. The Mets clearly intended to ask Gerber to finish the game, but after coming out to the mound for his third inning of work in the ninth, he returned to the dugout with the trainer to tend to what appeared to be a blister. Cionel Pérez pitched the top of the ninth for the Mets instead and he delivered a scoreless frame.
Justin Bruihl pitched two scoreless innings in relief of May and Matt Svanson finished things off with a scoreless ninth for the Cardinals, as the Mets were shut out for the fourth time this season.
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Box scores
Win Probability Added
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Big Mets winner: A.J. Ewing, +9% WPA
Big Mets loser: Freddy Peralta, -29% WPA
Mets pitchers: -29% WPA
Mets hitters: -21% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: A.J. Ewing’s one-out double in the bottom of the second, +4.4% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Nathan Church’s double in the top of the third, -11.9% WPA
