Cardinals 4 Mets 1
On a wet, gray afternoon in Flushing that was as dreary as the Mets’ season, St. Louis demonstrated just how far the NL champs have fallen. The same Cardinal team that was drilled in five games in last October’s NLCS won 4-1 for their first three-game sweep at Shea in eight years.
After come-from-ahead losses Friday and Saturday, there was little drama yesterday. Bruce Chen spotted St. Louis a three-run first-inning lead, far too big a hole for a struggling offense that stranded 10 runners, including Jay Payton popping up with the bases loaded.
“That was the big thing all year for us. In situations like that we haven’t come through with the big hit. This pretty much hurts right now,” said Edgardo Alfonzo, who ended the game with an epitome of this season – robbed of a sure base hit by a leaping Fernando Vina.
And as the 38,939 fans filed out of Shea, the birds hovering overhead might as well have been vultures circling a dead offense that came into the day second-worst in the majors with the bases-loaded (.206) and had stranded the second-most runners in the NL.
“We kept getting guys on, bases loaded and don’t score, leadoff doubles and don’t get a hit. I hate the don’ts, but that’s what’s happening,” said Bobby Valentine, whose team is 1-for-their-last-30 with the bases loaded.
“It is incredible. You think you could have [a pitcher] up there that many times with bases loaded and probably get more than one hit. You’d think you’d get a bloop once in a while, a gapper, a grounder in the hole. It’s way out of my realm. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
After rallying to win Friday and Saturday, St. Louis needed no heroics yesterday: Just the pitching of Darryl Kile (13-7) and the power of Mark McGwire.
McGwire reached out for Chen’s 0-1 fastball and crushed it the other way, a 400-foot line drive to right, his 11th homer in as many hits. Albert Pujols followed with a full-count solo shot for a 3-0 lead, and Kile made it stand up, allowing three hits and one run in six innings.
Chen (5-6) found his fastball after that, and settled in to throw five shutout innings until a Vina RBI double in the seventh chased him. But the Mets could muster no offense other than Matt Lawton’s fourth-inning solo shot.
Oh, they had their chances, but did little with them.
With two on and nobody out in the second, the Mets went down in order. After Kile issued two-out walks to Mike Piazza, Todd Zeile and Benny Agbayani in the sixth, Payton hit a grounder to first, leaving the bases juiced. St. Louis added another run the next inning.
After Edgar Renteria’s leadoff single, Chen retired Mike Matheny and Miguel Cairo, but in Met-fashion, shot himself in the foot with an errant pick-off throw. Renteria ended up on third, and Vina hit an RBI double to right for a 4-1 lead.
With two on and nobody out in the seventh, Joe McEwing hit into a double play and Alfonzo struck out. With two on and two out in the eighth, TJ Mathews relieved Steve Kline and needed just one pitch to get Payton to pop up and end the threat.
“I had good at-bats, but I hit the ball hard right at people. That’s the way the season’s gone,” Payton ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^said.