The Mets continue to be hot as they win their third straight over the St. Louis Cardinals

The New York Mets defeated the St. Louis Cardinals by the score of 6-1 on Sunday night. The game was played at Citi Field in Flushing,NY. Jon Niese started for the Mets and pitched well. Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Andres Torres led the Mets offense. Jake Westbrook started for the Cardinals and got roughed up a bit. The bullpen used four pitchers and they pitched pretty well. Yadier Molina and Chambers led the offense for the Cardinals. 
Niese pitched six innings giving up six hits and no runs with one walk and ten strikeouts. He earned his fourth win of the season. Bobby Parnell pitched an inning walking two and striking out one, Elvin Ramirez pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up two hits and a run and he struck out one and Tim Byrdak got the one batter out that he faced. Frank Francisco pitched a perfect inning striking out two batters. Westbrook lost his fifth game of the season. He pitched five innings giving up nine hits and five runs with two walks and two strikeouts. The Cardinals bullpen used four relievers to pitch three innings giving up two hits and a run. They walked one and struck out two.

Nieuwenhuis had three hits and three RBI, Torres had three hits and two RBI and David Wright drew a walk. Lucas Duda had a hit and an RBI, Daniel Murphy had a hit and Omar Quintanilla drew a walk. Josh Thole had a hit and drew a walk and Niese had two hits. Torres had a double and a triple. Nieuwenhuis had a homerun. The Mets were 4-11 with runners in scoring position and they left seven men on base. Davis and Wright each made an error. Torres had an outfield assist.

Allen Craig had a hit, Matt Holliday had a hit and drew a walk and Carlos Beltran had a hit. David Freese had a hit, Molina had two hits and drew a walk and Adron Chambers had two hits and an RBI. Daniel Descalso drew a walk, Craig had a double and the team was 2-12 with runners in scoring position and they left 12 men on base. Molina had a stolen base.

Duda had an RBI single in the first to give the Mets a 1-0 lead. In the fourth Nieuwenhuis hit a two run homerun to give the Mets a 3-0 lead. Nieuwenhuis hit an RBI single in the sixth and Torres hit a two run triple to make it 6-0 Mets. Chambers hit an RBI single in the eighth to make it 6-1 and that would be the final score.

The Mets have won the first three games of this four game series. The Mets improved their record to 31-23 and the Cardinals dropped their record to 27-27. The Mets are in a three way first place tie, they have exceeded expectations to this point. They have had a string of great starting pitching which is carrying them. The Mets and Cardinals will play a Monday afternoon game to complete their series.