For one brief burst of performance in the sixth inning, the Cardinals found just enough spare runs in the pockets to tie the game, but otherwise, it was more of the same for a team struggling to find a pulse offensively, inning after inning after inning.
Those too were brief.
The Cardinals maxed out at three runs and fell to the New York Mets 4-3 on Monday when New York’s leadoff hitter Brandon Nimmo broke a tie with a solo homer in the seventh inning at Busch Stadium. A 3-3 game reached the Cardinals bullpen, which has been the team’s steady presence through the offensive struggles, but all it took was one swing — and the Mets got that swing.
Nimmo’s fourth home run of the season put the Mets ahead, and Mets relievers assured it stayed that way. Edwin Diaz pitched an expedient ninth inning with two ground outs and a strikeout to secure his fifth save and send the Cardinals to their third consecutive loss and their fifth in the past six games.
With a pace set by Mets lefty Sean Manaea (2-1) and permitted by the Cardinals’ pedestrian offense, the game was over in two hours, 24 minutes.
“Frustrating as can be,†manager Oliver Marmol said of the lack of scoring.
He said that before the game.
Kyle Gibson allowed three runs (two earned) on seven hits through six innings. He struck out the first two batters of the game before allowing a first-inning run. An error complicated his fifth inning and allowed the Mets to take a 3-0 lead. That has been the Cardinals’ outer limit for scoring over the past several weeks, and they got just that many with an answer in the sixth inning.
The offense stalled from there and finished 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position. Over their past eight games, they are 10 for 55 with runners in scoring position.
Fermin sparks rally
Unable to do much or sustain anything for five innings against Mets lefty Manaea, the Cardinals stirred for their customary three runs in one sixth-inning gulp.
They began from the top, with Jose Fermin.
Infielder Fermin received his first career start at leadoff in the majors, as Marmol said before the game, because of the “the quality of his at-bats.†Fermin opened the game with a hotshot grounder down the third base line that forced third baseman Brett Baty and umpire Doug Eddings to collide in foul territory. Fermin didn’t need Eddings’ pick and roll to arrive at first base safely. But that is also where the inning ended.
Three Cardinals teammates failed to advance him from first.
Things went better the next time Fermin reached base.
He threaded a single to left that put the game-tying rally in motion. Fermin’s single was followed Willson Contreras’ double to score Fermin and seize the Cardinals’ first run. A walk to Paul Goldschmidt and two quick fly outs brought the inning around to Ivan Herrera, the designated hitter against the lefty Manaea. Herrera drilled a pitch to the left-center gap and scored both of his teammates for a 3-3 game. Goldschmidt slid home ahead of the throw, and Herrera attempted to do the same at third. He was not as successful.
The tag applied to Herrera at third drew a replay challenge from the Cardinals, but officials in New York confirmed Eddings’ call in real time.
Error allows Mets to widen lead
In all but one of his first six innings, Gibson had to sidestep a runner on base, and while the Mets did their fair share of threatening to increase the lead, it wasn’t until a misstep by the Cardinals that they did.
After Jeff McNeil’s leadoff single to start the fifth inning, Nimmo lashed a line drive to right field. Right fielder Lars Nootbaar played the liner tight, and he either lost it in some glare or got handcuffed by the pace of the bounce. The ball got past him and all the way to the right field wall. That allowed both McNeil and Nimmo to advance a base, putting both into scoring position with no outs.
By the time Gibson got two outs, the Mets had two more runs.
They didn’t make the most of the opportunity by turning it into a runaway inning, but they made sure they didn’t let it pass without producing what the Cardinals offered with a couple of outs. A ground ball to the right side brought home McNeil to double the Mets’ lead, and Nimmo scored on a sacrifice fly to Nootbaar in right field, bringing the Mets lead up to 3-0. One of the runs was unearned due to the error. Both could have been avoided.
It was unproductive but also quick
For the first five innings of the Mets’ visit, the Cardinals lineup continued its season-long search for runs but didn’t waste much time coming up empty.
With a pace of game usually reserved for the Grapefruit League, Mets lefty Manaea breezed through the Cardinals lineup with both swift and unproductive outs. On his 18th pitch of the game, Manaea got his fourth out, while Gibson needed 40 pitches to get his first six. It took Manaea 51 pitches to get the first 12 outs, and through the Cardinals’ first 16 batters, they had only two hits. It was a continuation of the lack of offense they had Sunday against the White Sox or this past week in Detroit or last month at home.
Just quicker.
Manaea got help from McNeil with a diving catch in left-center field, and he got help from the Cardinals in other spots with runners in scoring position. Innings ended on soft line drives and ground outs with runners watching from second base.
The Mets lefty trimmed his ERA beneath 3.00 for a moment in the game before allowing the three runs. He struck out only one Cardinal in his six innings, but he was able to get quick-contact outs to limit them to the six hits, three of which came in the sixth inning.
Foiled by former Cardinals
A week that began with Jack Flaherty’s 14 strikeouts and seven consecutive to start a game against his former team continued to find new ways for old Cardinals to play key roles against their former team. Former Cardinals All-Star Paul DeJong had two doubles and scored two runs in the White Sox win Sunday at Busch. Tommy Pham had an RBI for the Sox in their extra-inning win Saturday, and it was former Cardinals reliever John Brebbia with two key outs with the bases loaded in extra innings that allowed the Sox to win that game.
On Monday, it was the Cardinals’ former Gold Glove-winning center fielder Harrison Bader, a midgame replacement for the Mets, coming up with a late-game double against his club, it was a first-round pick by the Cardinals, like Flaherty, who foiled them.
Adam Ottavino pitched around a single in the eighth inning to preserve the Mets’ one-run lead and carry it to one of the top closers in the game. Cue the trumpets.
With seven shutout innings in a 4-0 victory opposite phenom Paul Skenes, right-hander continued to showcase the big payoff he got from betting…
The Cardinals’ Willson Contreras walks away after striking out as Mets catcher Tomas Nido prepares to throw the ball in the first inning of a game on Monday, May 6, 2024, at Busch Stadium.
Mets catcher Tomas Nido attempts to tag out Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt as he scores a run during the sixth inning of a game Monday, May 6, 2024, at Busch Stadium.
Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn throws to first baseman Paul Goldschmidt on a double play attempt after forcing out the Mets' Joey Wendle at second base during the second inning of a game Monday, May 6, 2024, at Busch Stadium.