Kodai Senga pitched well enough but the Mets could not scratch out a win over the Cardinals in a 5-3 loss to St. Louis on Saturday afternoon.
Here are the takeaways…
- Coming off the best start of his career, Senga had to get out of a jam early. After a one-out single to Paul Goldschmidt, Senga got Nolan Arenado to fly out before hitting Willson Contreras -- the first HBP of Senga’s career. He then walked Jordan Walker to load the bases. However, Senga struck out Nolan Gorman on his ghost fork to end the threat.
Senga had trouble controlling his ghost fork in the first inning, bouncing a lot of them in front of the plate. Francisco Alvarez did a good job of stopping most of them. The trouble with the ghost fork led Senga to use a lot of fastballs and cutters up in the zone which got him in trouble. Brandon Donovan tied the game with an RBI single and Goldschmidt lined a two-run homer just over the right-field wall to put the Cardinals up 3-1. An elevated fastball from Senga to Walker in the third led to a solo shot that put the Cards up 4-1.
Senga would settle down after the Walker home run, getting 13 of the next 14 Cardinals batters out -- save for a Luis Guillorme error -- to end his day on a high note. Senga pitched 6.2 innings (99 pitches) and gave up five hits, four runs, one walk and struck out eight batters.
- Francisco Lindor was not in the starting lineup Saturday due to his wife giving birth to their daughter earlier in the day. The shortstop was struggling prior to Saturday’s game. Over his last seven games, he’s hitting 4-for-21 (.167) with one home run, two RBI, four walks and six strikeouts. In his stead, Guillorme played shortstop from the No. 9 hole. He went 2-for-4 with a double and a two-run shot in the fifth inning, his first homer of his season, which cut the Cards’ lead to 4-3.
Tommy Pham was the Mets’ cleanup hitter with Lindor out. Unlike Lindor, Pham is on a tear, hitting 9-for-30 (.300) with six RBI. Friday night, the outfielder went 2-for-4 with two RBI and that continued into game two of this series. Pham continued to get on base, going 1-for-4 on Saturday.
- Brandon Nimmo hit the first pitch from Adam Wainwright over the right-field wall to give the Mets a 1-0 lead. It’s Nimmo’ second leadoff homer this week -- the first coming Tuesday against the Yankees. He finished 1-for-4 with a walk.
Daniel Vogelbach continued to look more comfortable at the plate. He walked in his first at-bat and after narrowly missing a double down the line, he smoked a single. He finished 1-for-3 with that walk.
- Unfortunately for the Mets, they could not get that timely hit. They had their chances throughout the game, but Wainwright would get a double play to end any threat. In the seventh, a one-out double from Guillorme went nowhere when Nimmo grounded out and Jeff McNeil grounded out -- a Starling Marte walk sandwiched in between -- to end the inning.
- In relief of Senga, Jeff Brigham got three clean outs, giving up just one walk. However, Brooks Raley gave up a run in the ninth inning on a Dylan Carlson single. Raley picked up two outs and gave up three hits and a run before being pulled for Adam Ottavino. Ottavino struck out Goldschmidt and Arenado to get out of the inning and give the Mets a chance in the bottom of the ninth.
In the ninth, Lindor pinch-hit for Mark Canha to leadoff. Lindor arrived at Citi Field in the middle of the game and Buck Showalter said prior to Saturday's contest that the shortstop did not want to be put on paternity leave. He was hit by a pitch to get the tying run to the plate.
That was followed by Guillorme striking out swinging. Nimmo fanned through a 103 mph fastball and Marte struck out looking on an 89 mph sweeper. The Mets' two-game winning streak was snapped as they lost 5-3 to the Cards, who snapped their six-game losing streak.