Friday’s Game Report: Mets 5, Cardinals 4
By Rob Rains
The Cardinals’ road woes continued on Friday night.
Brendan Donovan homered in the top of the ninth inning to pull the Cardinals into a tie with the Mets in New York but the tie didn’t last long.
On Ryan Fernandez’s third pitch in the bottom of the inning, Francisco Lindor launched a long home run that gave the Mets the walk-off win.
The loss dropped the Cardinals to 1-7 on the road to begin this season.
Here is how Friday night’s game broke down:
At the plate: Donovan had had a big night even before the game-tying homer, his third of the season. He singled and scored in the second and scored again in the fourth after he reached on a fielder’s choice … Donovan’s hitting streak is now at 14 games … Pedro Pages drove in the first run with a second-inning single and Nolan Arenado had an RBI single, following a double by Willson Contreras, in the sixth that gave the Cardinals a short-lived 3-2 lead … The other RBI came on a single by Jordan Walker that drove in Donovan in the fourth.
On the mound: Miles Mikolas allowed only two hits through the first four innings but could not get out of the fifth when the Mets scored a pair of runs … Mark Vientos’ second home run in as many nights, off Kyle Leahy in the sixth, lifted the Mets into a 3-3 tie … A throwing error on a pickoff throw to first by Phil Maton led to a run in the eighth that put the Mets back in front 4-3. Brandon Nimmo reached on a fielder’s choice, took second on the error and scored on a double by Luis Torrens … It was the first run Maton has allowed in 10 2/3 innings this season.
Key stat: The Cardinals struck out a season-high 15 times, including three each by Contreras and Thomas Saggese. Combined with 11 strikeouts on Thursday night, 26 of the 54 outs recorded by the Cardinals in the two games came on strikeouts.
Worth noting: Masyn Winn (back spasms) began a weekend rehab assignment with Memphis on Friday and was 0-of-3, striking out in all three at-bats, and he also committing a fielding error. Winn is also scheduled to play both Saturday and Sunday and then rejoin the Cardinals in Atlanta … Victor Scott II moved into the leadoff spot with Lars Nootbaar out of the starting lineup but he was hitless in four at-bats … Washington University graduate Caleb Durbin was promoted to the majors by the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday and got his first career hit in his first at-bat, an infield single.
Up next: Matthew Liberatore will get the start on Saturday in the third game of the series. The game is scheduled to begin at 3:05 p.m. St. Louis time and will be televised by Fox.
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