, the Cardinals claimed he missed first base and challenged. A 56-second replay review confirmed Bruce touched the bag, and the NL East-leading Mets (15-6) closed it out for their 10th comeback victory of the season.''It feels good to help the ballclub a little bit,'' Bruce said.Cespedes' homer off starter Luke Weaver tied it 4-all in the fifth. The drive traveled an estimated 463 feet to left field, the third-longest by an opposing player in the history of Busch Stadium III.Bruce's eighth-inning single sent Todd Frazier from first to third before Adrian Gonzalez tied it at 5 with a sacrifice fly.Mets starter Zack Wheeler lasted a season-low four innings and gave up four runs. Former ace Matt Harvey gave up a run over two innings in his first relief appearance since being demoted to the bullpen.Back-to-back doubles by Dexter Fowler and Paul DeJong off Harvey with two outs in the fifth gave St. Louis a 5-4 lead.Robert Gsellman (3-0) pitched a scoreless ninth for the win, and Jeurys Familia earned his ninth save.Bruce's sinking line drive got by left fielder Marcell Ozuna in the second for an RBI triple. It was Bruce's first triple in 174 games with the Mets.Weaver lasted 4 2/3 innings. He gave up four runs and walked a career-high six as St. Louis had its three-game winning streak snapped.Tommy Pham drove Wheeler's 95 mph fastball 420 feet to center for a home run that gave the Cardinals a 2-0 lead in the first inning.Kolten Wong doubled in a run and scored on Weaver's single in the fourth to make it 4-1. Weaver's single was the first time the Mets allowed an opposing pitcher to reach safely in 42 plate appearances this season.WEB GEMWong made a diving play at second on Gonzalez's grounder and threw him out from his knees for the first out in the second. Wong was playing in with Bruce at third. The play saved a run and Weaver was able to strand Bruce at third.TRAINER'S ROOMMets: LHP Jason Vargas (broken right hand) started Monday for Triple-A Las Vegas and allowed three runs over four innings. He is scheduled to make his season debut Saturday in San Diego.Cardinals: RHP Sam Tuivailala and LHP Ryan Sherriff have reported to Triple-A Memphis for rehab assignments. Tuivailala is scheduled to throw Wednesday and Sherriff will throw later this week.UP NEXTMets LHP Steven Matz (1-1, 4.42 ERA) seeks his first win against St. Louis in the middle game of the series Wednesday night. Matz is 0-2 with an 8.64 ERA in two career starts against the Cardinals. They counter with RHP Michael Wacha (3-1, 4.22), who has won his last three starts.---More baseball: https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball)
Things get tougher for Cards, who are set to host Mets 3h ago• 2 min read The MLB welcome wagon, aka the Cincinnati Reds, has left town.Now the St. Louis Cardinals have to validate their recent streak of wins against MLB's worst team by continuing to win games against better ones, like the New York Mets, who arrive Tuesday night at Busch Stadium to start a three-game series.By beating Cincinnati seven straight times to highlight a stretch of eight wins in nine games, St. Louis (13-8) jumped into first place in the National League Central by 10 percentage points over Milwaukee. Nine of the Cardinals' next 11 games are against teams sporting winning records.That includes New York (14-6), which comes into town with a half-game edge over Philadelphia in the NL East. While the Mets have hit their first rough patch under first-year manager Mickey Callaway with four losses in six games, they have still been a pleasant surprise in the early going.New York started its season by taking two of three from St. Louis, overpowering the Cardinals with Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom in the first two games before Luke Weaver worked a 5-1 win in the series finale.Weaver (2-1, 4.22 ERA) experienced his first poor start of the year on Thursday, getting lit up for nine hits and six runs in four innings of an 8-5 loss at the Chicago Cubs. Otherwise, Weaver has been sharp, getting ahead with his fastball and finishing hitters with his plus changeup.Weaver was scheduled to start Wednesday night, but St. Louis manager Mike Matheny opted to move him up a day and use him on normal rest when Adam Wainwright hit the 10-day disabled list Sunday with right elbow inflammation. The club won't need a fifth starter again until Saturday night in Pittsburgh.The Mets' pitching plans were also affected by the events of Sunday, although weather was the protagonist in their case. A rainout in Atlanta led Callaway to move Zack Wheeler (1-1, 2.77) back to Tuesday night."Wheeler's throwing the ball really well," Callaway told mlb.com. "I think he deserves to stay in the rotation at this point. That's fairly obvious to me. That's why we made the decision we did." The decision of which Callaway spoke was to send former NL All-Star starter Matt Harvey to the bullpen, a choice that didn't sit well with Harvey. But it's not like Harvey (0-2, 6.00) has pitched well in four starts, and with Jason Vargas scheduled to come off the DL to start Saturday in San Diego, Harvey became the odd man out of a rotation that has pulled its weight so far.Wheeler has lost both career starts against the Cardinals with a 4.76 ERA, including a 4-1 setback last year on July 8 when Paul DeJong touched him for a homer and a double.The streaky DeJong, who has already fanned 31 times in 77 at-bats, is doing plenty of damage when he hits the ball. His seventh homer, a three-run shot on Sunday, turned a 3-2 game into a 6-2 breather in the seventh inning as St. Louis went on to hammer the hapless Reds 9-2.
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