April 23, 2014 -- Mets 3, Cardinals 2

Jonathan Niese pitched 6 2/3’s of excellent baseball in cold and windy conditions at Citi Field and Lucas Duda hit his 4th homer as the Mets beat the Cardinals Wednesday night 3-2.  Michael Wacha started for the Cards and was tough to hit but it was feast or famine. His first nine outs were strike outs and through 4 he had 10 punch outs, but he also had 5 walks.  The Cards took a 1-0 lead in the top of the 1st on a RBI double by Yadier Molina. In the top of the 4th Wacha walked Ruben Tejada and Kirk Nieuwenhuis with the bags juiced to give the Mets a 2-1 lead.  Wacha was gone after 4. In the 6th Duda hit a bomb to deep right center off Seth Maness to make it 3-1 Mets.  Niese gets his first win of 2014 going the 6 2/3’s allowing 6 hits the 1 run he walked 2 and struck out 3. He’s now 1-2. Wacha only lasted the 4 innings. He allowed 3 hits, 2 runs, both earned the 5 walks and the 10 k’s, he falls to 2-2.  Daisuke Matsuzaka got the final out of the 7th, Carlos Torres left the 8th with runners on 2nd and 3rd and 2 outs  but Scott Rice who has been terrific of late retired Matt Adams to end the threat. Kyle Farnsworth allowed 3  hits and a run in the top of the 9th for this 2nd save on the year. But the real save was a relay throw from Miguel Tejada in left center to cut down Matt Carpenter at the plate to save the 3-2 lead. Carpenter had 4 hits to lead the St. Louis attack. The Mets managed 4 hits on the game. In the first inning Curtis Granderson snapped his nightmare 0-22 streak with a single to right. He went 1-3 with a walk.  Travis d’Arnaud  and Daniel Murphy also added singles. With the win the Mets clinch a split of this four game set and now stand at 11-10 overall and 5-7 at home. Thursday afternoon the Amazins look to win the series. Bartolo Colon (1-3  5.40) goes for the Mets.  Lance Lynn (4-0  3.42) goes for the Redbirds