Tylor Megill couldn’t get it done today.
The Mets had a bad day twice over in St. Louis, dropping the second game of their double header 5-4 in a game where they stranded ten men on base.
Tylor Megill started game two for the Mets, and ran into trouble fairly early. In the bottom of the second inning, Megill allowed a leadoff single to Nolan Arenado and, one out later, a two-run home run to Alec Burleson.
The Mets battled back in the top of the third against Cardinals’ starter Andre Pallante. The inning led off with singles by Tyrone Taylor and Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto pushed the runners over on a ground out. Taylor scored on a single by Pete Alonso, followed up by a walk to Mark Vientos. Lindor and Alonso both scored on a Starling Marte single later in the inning, as did Vientos on a Francisco Alvarez single, putting the Mets up 4-2.
Megill couldn’t keep the lead, however, as in the bottom of the third the Cardinals bounced back. Megill walked two, and both scored on singles by Arrenado and Wilson Contreras to knot the game up at 4.
Marte was pulled from the game after the fourth inning, simply because the Mets wanted to limit his time in the field, not due to an injury concern.
Neither team would score again until the bottom of the sixth, at which point Max Kranick had relieved Megill. A broken-bat single by Yohel Pozo put one on with one out. Victor Scott then split the outfielders and saw the slow-footed Pozo scoring when the relay throw from Taylor wasn’t caught. The Cardinals went up 5-4 and never looked back.
Michael McGreevy came in the game in the fourth for the Red Birds, and was excellent. The rookie turned in a fantastic long relief appearance, closing out the game with five and two-thirds innings of one-hit relief. It was on his last batter of the eighth that Arrenado made a fantastic catch which ended on him, through the netting, sitting on a kid and making her cry. It was that kind of game.
After Ryne Stanek worked around some Edwin Díaz had not pitched in eight days, and so was brought in to pitch the eighth inning, instantly giving up a hit. Díaz gave up a hard-hit double to the most Star Wars-named person in the majors, Lars Nootbaar, but kept the Cardinals off the board in the eighth.
The Mets couldn’t solve McGreevy, and went quietly in the ninth to finish off the rough trip to Missouri. With that loss, the Mets were swept in the double header and have now lost their last two series. They travel to Arizona for a three-game series starting tomorrow. Griffin Canning and Ryne Nelson face off in the series opener.
SB Nation GameThreads
Box scores
Win Probability Added
Fngraphs.com
Big Mets winner: Starling Marte, +19.8% WPA
Big Mets loser: Brandon Nimmo, -32.5% WPA
Mets pitchers: -24.0% WPA
Mets hitters: -26.0% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Starline Marte’s two-run single, +20.5% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Victor Scott’s go-ahead double, – 19.8% WPA