NEW YORK — Whatever the scoreboard ultimately said after the final out of the game, the bigger question for both teams leaving the field Wednesday night was what they may have lost from their roster — and for how long.
Cardinals shortstop Edmundo Sosa and Mets veteran ace Max Scherzer both signaled from the field to the dugout at points late in the game and abruptly left with injuries. Sosa was diagnosed with a mild strain of his left ankle and listed as day to day, though the Cardinals will have to quickly reassess their middle infield depth before Thursday’s afternoon finale to the four-game series at Citi Field.
Scherzer will undergo scans of his torso and oblique muscle Thursday to determine the cause of discomfort running along his left side, according to a Mets officials.
By the time Scherzer left the game in the sixth inning, the Mets had already pounced on rookie reliever Jake Walsh for four runs to break an early tie and send them toward a 11-4 victory. Walsh faced four batters, retired none, and left the bases loaded for another pitcher to deal with. In the eighth, Paul Goldschmidt extended his hitting streak to 11 games and Nolan Arenado socked a two-run homer to briefly trim the Mets’ lead down to two runs.
The Mets answered — with gusto.
Pete Alonso hammered a three-run homer in the eighth and the Mets scored five runs on lefty T. J. McFarland before he could get his first out. The Cardinals’ bullpen allowed nine runs as the Mets won their second of the first three games in this series. The Mets clinched the season series against the Cardinals for the first time since 2014.
Less than eight days after Paul DeJong’s demotion to Class AAA Memphis, the Cardinals find themselves thinned at middle infield. Tommy Edman had a bruised calf muscle from Tuesday’s game that kept him out of the starting lineup Wednesday. Edman entered the game for the final four innings after Sosa had to leave. The Gold Glove winner took over at second and rookie Brendan Donovan slid over to shortstop in place of Sosa. The length of time they expect to be without Sosa will determine if the Cardinals make a roster move and consider a longer-term play by promoting leading prospect Nolan Gorman.
Gorman went three-for-four Wednesday night for Triple-A Memphis.
Sosa injured his ankle when trying to steal second base after a single in the fifth inning. He appeared to jam the joint on the slide. He tried to go out to take his position for the next inning before calling to the dugout.
The Cardinals saw Wednesday’s start for Jordan Hicks as the conclusion of his build-up program. When next he takes the mound for a start, he’ll be judged based on how he pitches not how many pitches he needs to build arm strength. He’ll have to be better to pitch deeper. Seven of Hicks’ first eight pitches were balls Wednesday. He allowed four of the first five batters he faced to reach base, and the fifth delivered a two-run single before Hicks had a second out.
Hicks got better but never shook the lack of control or became efficient enough to log more innings than four. Of his 82 pitches, 43 were balls.
He walked three, hit two, but found a way around those to allow two runs.
A gust of history got the Cardinals back into the game immediately after the Mets took a 2-0 lead on Hicks in the first inning.
Albert Pujols spent the final months of last season in the same Dodgers clubhouse as Scherzer. During LA’s visit to Busch Stadium, Scherzer, the St. Louis-area kid, grabbed a quick photo with Pujols, the St. Louis superstar, with the Gateway Arch in the background. Pujols said Wednesday that he still has the photo on his phone. He said it’s of him and a Hall of Famer.
“When he pitches, he’s all about his business,” Pujols said. “That’s why he’s going to be a Hall of Famer. When he’s not pitching, he’s a fun guy to be around.”
He was pitching Wednesday.
Pujols still had fun.
In the second inning, with two runners in scoring position after Dylan Carlson’s double, Pujols threaded a single down the first-base line. Two runs scored to knot the game, 2-2, on Pujols’ 3,313th career hit. That tied with Eddie Collins for the 10th-most all-time, according to Elias research. Other sources, such as Baseball-Reference.com, credit Collins with more base hits, as many as 3,315, depending on the research. The Cardinals have double-checked with Elias on the total, and the Yankees used the same total of Collins when chronicling Derek Jeter’s rise into the top 10 all time.
Collins made his debut before the Cubs’ 1908 World Series title and played until 1930. In the fourth inning of Wednesday’s game, Collins dropped out of the top 10 for the first time since he retired, nearly a century ago.
Pujols passed him with a flair single to center field off Scherzer.
That was his 3,314th hit.
It was not the last hit off Scherzer for the Cardinals, though the two runs Pujols delivered in the second were the only runs against the right-hander. Pujols stole second on his former teammate, but was stranded there by his current teammates. In the sixth, the Cardinals rapped two singles. Carlson’s second hit of the game again moved a runner into scoring position for Pujols. Scherzer delivered a pitch and then looked to the dugout. He brought his hand across his neck in the universal sign for “it’s over, done.”
He had thrown 87 pitches, completed 5 2/3 innings.
Rushed into the game due to the injury but given time to warm up, Adam Ottavino kept the Cardinals from adding to Scherzer’s line by striking out Pujols for the final out of the sixth inning.
By then, the Mets had had opened up a four-run lead with their four-fifth.
One batter into his outing, Walsh found himself in trouble. He walked the leadoff batter and then hit Francisco Lindor with a breaking ball. The umpires had issued warnings in the game due to an exchange of hit batters, but Walsh, who clearly had no intent behind his breaking ball, was allowed to continue in the game. Not that that decision helped the Cardinals. The right-hander allowed singles to the next two batters he faced. Four batters into the fifth inning, Walsh did not have an out, had already allowed the tiebreaking single, and still had the bases loaded.
What he did not have was the ball.
Nick Wittgren replaced Walsh in the midst of that trouble and retired three of the four batters he faced. But he also allowed all three of the inherited runners to score.
