Mets avoid the swep in St. Louis and help the Braves in the process

By Gary W. Marchese Jr.

St. Louis,MO(September 22)-The New York Mets defeated the St. Louis Cardinals by the score of 8-6 on Thursday evening. The Mets had a great comeback in this game as they were trailing by four runs entering the ninth inning. Chris Capuano started for the Mets and did his usual which is ok, nothing great and nothing horrible. He wasn’t able to go deep into the game which isn’t good but the bullpen did a pretty good job. Drew Stinson had a rough outing but four other relievers pitched well. The offense was led by Ruben Tejada who had a couple of hits and Josh Thole also had a couple of hits.

Capuano pitched 4 2/3 innings giving up eight hits and four runs. He walked two and struck out four. Ryota Igarashi pitched 1 1/3 innings giving up one hit and one walk, Stinson pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up two hits and two runs and Daniel Herrera gave up a hit in 1/3 of an inning. Manny Acosta pitched a perfect inning to record his fourth win of the season and Bobby Parnell pitched a perfect inning for his sixth save of the season. Parnell also struck out one batter.

Jose Reyes had a hit, RBI and a walk, Tejada had two hits, three RBI and a walk and Angel Pagan had two walks. Willie Harris had a hit, two RBI and two walks. Thole had two hits, Mike Baxter had a hit and Jason Pridie had a walk. Justin Turner had an RBI and a walk. Thole and Tejada each had a double. The Mets were 3-13 with runners in scoring position and they left seven men on base. Pagan had a stolen base.

Allen Craig hit a two run homerun in the first inning to give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead. In the fifth Tejada had an RBI walk to make it 2-1 Cardinals. Albert Pujols hit a homerun in the fifth and Yadier Molina had an RBI single. It was 4-1 Cardinals. In the seventh Molina had an RBI double and Tyler Greene had an RBI single to make it 6-1. In the eighth Molina allowed a passed ball and the Mets scored a run to make it a 6-2 game. In the ninth Turner walked to drive in a run, Reyes had an RBI single, Tejada had a two run double and Harris had a two run single to give the Mets a 8-6 lead. That would be the final runs of the game as the Mets did not struggle to hold onto this lead.

The Mets really dashed the Cardinals hopes, the Cardinals were within two games of the wild card and now it is three. The Mets will return home on Friday night to begin a three game series with the Philadelphia Phillies. The Mets will conclude their season with three games against the Cincinatti Reds. The Mets hope to finish strong on this homestand and try and look forward to the 2012 season.