July 17th 2015 -- Cardinals 3, Mets 2

Friday night in St. Louis, Noah Syndergaard hung a breaking ball to Jhonny Peralta that scraped the back of the left field wall to snap a 1 all tie in the 6^th inning, the Cardinals and Lance Lynn out duel the Mets 3-2.  The Mets got off to a quick 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Curtis Granderson homered to lead off the game. It’s the 5^th lead-off homer for Grandy this year and his 14^th overall to make it 1-0 Mets. It stayed that way until the 6^th as Syndergaard and Lynn matched zeros.  In the 6^th the Cards scratched out a run to tie the game when Kolton Wong singled stole 2^nd and went to 3^rd on a throwing error by Kevin Plawecki. He then scored on a fielder’s choice by Matt Carpenter.  Matt Holliday hit a scorcher to 2^nd for the 2^nd out.  Peralta then homered, his 14^th, just past the outstretched glove of Kirk Nieuwenhuis and the Cards had the lead for good. Syndergaard was solid. He went 7 innings allowing 5 hits 2 runs (both earned) walking 1 and striking out 6. He takes the hard luck loss falling to 4-5. Despite the loss he drops his ERA to 3.05.  Lynn went 7 allowing 3 hits 1 run (earned) walked 1 and struck out 9.  He gets the win improving to 7-5.  The Cardinals made it 3-1 in the bottom of the 8^th when Peter Bourjos doubled over the head of Juan Lagares to score Wong from first. The Cards needed that insurance run because Trevor Rosenthal allowed a run in the top of the 9^th but held on for his 27^th save.  Offensively the Mets managed 7 hits on the night getting 2 apiece by Granderson, Plawecki and Ruben Tejada. Tejada had the RBI infield single in the top of the 9^th. The loss snaps the Mets 4 game winning streak. They now stand at 47-43 on the year and 15-29 on the road.  The game between the Dodgers and Nationals was suspended due to problem with the stadium lights. So for the time being, the Mets are 2 ½ games behind  the first place Nats.  Saturday night it’s game two of the series. Bartolo Colon (9-7 4.41) goes for the Mets, John Lackey (7-5 2.99) goes for the Redbirds.