ST. LOUIS — After having striking for just five extra-base hits in their previous six-plus games, the Cardinals exploded for three in the same inning Wednesday. Doubles by Yadier Molina and Tommy Edman and a two-run triple by Dylan Carlson highlighted a five-run fourth inning that gave the Cardinals the final game of a three-game series with the New York Mets, 10-5, at Busch Stadium.
The Cardinals stopped at three a losing streak in which they had scored just three runs. But they lost some uniformed personnel in the eighth after Nolan Arenado was thrown at by Mets rookie Yoan Lopez and was ejected for instigating a ruckus in which Cardinals first-base coach Stubby Clapp also was booted for taking down Mets strongman Pete Alonso. Alonso, who been hit in the helmet the night before, had charged into the melee but was not ejected.
The Mets were retaliating for third baseman J.D Davis being hit in the left ankle by Genesis Cabrera the inning before
iNew York scored four runs off former Met Steve Matz in the second inning but, though his pitch count was skyrocketing, Matz was allowed to stay in and he gave the Cardinals two scoreless innings before the bullpen and the Cardinals’ defense took over.
Left fielder Tyler O’Neill and center fielder Dylan Carlson both threw out overeager Mets runners in the sixth inning when the Mets momentarily forgot they were down by four runs.
First, O’Neill tossed out Mark Canha as the latter tried to stretch a single into a double. Then, to end the inning, after Luis Guillorme sent a drive over the head of Carlson in center, Carlson played the hop off the wall, spectacularly overthrew two cutoff men but the ball went directly to third baseman Edmundo Sosa for the out as Guillorme had been dissatisfied to stick with the double.
Statcast clocked the throw at 97.2 mph, faster than any pitch that had been thrown in the game.
Jake Woodford, who had appeared just twice this season, gained credit for the victory with two good innings of relief.
Matz needed 41 pitches to get through the second inning. Part of the reason for that was that the normally sure-handed Cardinals, including Matz himself, didn’t make a couple of plays in the field that wound up helping the Mets to a four-run inning. The Cardinals had taken a 1-0 lead on Corey Dickerson’s single in the first.
After Pete Alonzo singled to right, Eduardo Escobar blooped a single to left that landed in front of two-time Gold Glover O’Neill as shortstop Paul DeJong and Sosa also gave chase.
Matz retired the next two hitters before Guillorme grounded a ball up the middle. With DeJong moving toward the ball, Matz tried to make the play himself but could only slow it with his glove and DeJong didn’t have enough time to retire Guillorme at first.
Tomas Nido, the ninth-place hitter, immediately shot a two-run double to left center. Brandon Nimmo drilled a two-run single to right and it was 4-1 and Matz was at 60 pitches after the second.
Alonzo walked and Canha singled with one out in the third, bringing manager Oliver Marmol to the mound. But Marmol didn’t bring Matz with him when he returned to the dugout. O’Neill made a diving catch on J.D. Davis and then ran down Guillorme’s fly to end the inning. Matz was at 77 offerings for three.
The Cardinals parlayed singles by Edman and Paul Goldschmidt. O’Neill’s infield out and Nolan Arenado’s two-run single to right to cut the Mets’ lead to 4-3 in the third. After Matz breezed through the fourth, the Cardinals took the lead again with their five-run burst in their half, with the Mets employing some puzzling defensive strategy.
Molina, down to .152, started the inning by legging out a double on a hit to right that glanced off the short wall in front of the box seats. Carlos Carrasco then hit Sosa with a pitch.
Mets manager Buck Showalter ordered his corner infielders to play in for a possible bunt by Edman even though the Cardinals have tried just one sacrifice bunt this season, by Edman, and with Molina, perhaps the slowest runner in the league, at second base.
With first baseman Alonzo on the grass, Edman lined Carrasco’s first pitch for a run-scoring double to right when, if the first baseman was back at regular depth, the play could have been a double play or even a triple play.
That hit tied the score at 4-4. Carrasco got the next two outs and the Mets properly walked Arenado intentionally to fill the bases. But Carrasco wild-pitched home the lead run and Dickerson legged out an infield hit for his sixth hit of the season and sixth run batted in.
Carlson’s triple to right off reliever Sean Reid-Foley accounted for the final two runs of the inning.
Arenado doubled in O’Neill, who had walked and stolen second, in the sixth. Serving as the designated hitter Wednesday, has 17 RBIs in 17 games.
The Mets tacked on a run against Woodford and Cabrera in the seventh . After Goldschmidt drove in a run in the Cardinals' seventh, Cabrera hit Davis in the left ankle with a 96.4 mph fastball in the eighth, knocking Davis out of the game as the fourth Mets player to be hit by a pitch in the past two games.
This predictably caused the Mets to buzz Arenado with a 94 mph fastball up and in.
