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Cards’ road woes continue in 8-2 loss to Mets
New York, N.Y. – The struggling New York Mets took advantage of a rare bad outing by Adam Wainwright and ran away with an 8-2 victory Tuesday evening (July 27) at Citi Field. Heading into the night, Wainwright had pitched 25 straight scoreless innings.
Wainwright extended his shutout streak to 26 innings with a 1-2-3 first, but immediately ran into trouble in the second inning. A walk to David Wright and a ground-rule double by Carlos Beltran put runners on second and third with nobody out that led to an RBI groundout by Ike Davis that tied the score at 1-1.
Wainwright limited the Mets to one run that inning and appeared to settle down by sitting the Mets down in order in the third inning, but the fourth inning proved to be a totally different story.
After a strikeout of Wright started the inning, Wainwright walked Beltran and gave up a single to Davis. A wild pitch again put runners on second and third, and this time the Mets took full advantage as Jeff Francoeur drilled a three-run homer to center field that propelled the Mets to a three-run advantage.
The Mets tacked on two more runs in the fifth before breaking the game wide-open on a two-run homer by Jose Reyes against reliever Fernando Salas in the bottom of the sixth to lead 8-1.
Meanwhile, the Cardinals’ offensive attack stalled against lefthander Jonathan Niese after taking an early 1-0 lead in the first on an infield single by Ryan Ludwick. Niese blanked the Redbirds on only four hits over his next five innings of work.
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The Cards though had their chances to rally against the Mets’ bullpen, but as the case has been for much of this road trip, failed to take advantage.
A first and second with no outs situation in the seventh with Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday coming up produced no runs, as Pujols flied out and Holliday grounded into an inning-ending double play.
The Cards then had a golden opportunity in the eighth as they began the inning with three straight singles to load the bases, but a double-play by Randy Winn and a foul-out by Aaron Miles led to only one run scored.
Wainwright’s 26 inning scoreless streak this season is the team’s longest since Jose DeLeon in 1989. But as for tonight’s start, Wainwright said he knew early on that it could be a grind.
“Even warming up in the bullpen, I could feel my hip flying open,” said Wainwright. “Usually I make the adjustment quicker, but I’ll work on that before my next start.” “I’ll be better next time out, I can tell you that.”
With tonight’s loss, the Cards also drop into a virtual tie with the Cincinnati Reds atop the Central division.
The Cardinals’ road struggles this year are puzzling, to say the least. The team has now lost three of four on the current’ six-game road trip and drop to 21-29 on the road, the worst road record of any current division leader. But at home, the Cards are 34-16, which is tied for second best in the major leagues. So it’s fairly obvious the problems away from Busch Stadium have contributed to the Cards’ inability to secure a little breathing room in the division.
Tomorrow night will feature a great pitching matchup as Jaime Garcia (9-4, 2.21 ERA) will try to right the ship tomorrow night (July 28) for the Cards opposite Mets’ ace Johan Santana (8-5, 2.79 ERA. First pitch is set for 6:10 p.m.
By: Levi Convirs
MLBCenter.com St. Louis Cardinals Correspondent
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