Post Game: Mets 2, Cardinals 1, 20 Innings
The Mets defeated the Cardinals by the score of 2-1 in 20 innings tonight at Busch Stadium.
The game lasted six hours, and 53 minutes, the longest win in franchise history.
For a full recap and box score, check out SNY.tv here.
The Least You Should Know:
- Johan Santana started for the Mets today, and while he lacked a good fastball early, he had a great comeback performance from his poor start last Sunday, going seven innings and allowing just four hits, while striking out nine, throwing 113 pitches.
- In the bottom of the tenth inning, with the bases loaded and two outs, Alex Cora made a great catch to end the inning, jumping into the stands, while playing first base for just the third time in his career in place of Fernando Tatis.
- The Mets got brilliant efforts in relief from Ryota Igarashi, Pedro Feliciano, Fernando Nieve, Hisanori Takahashi, Jenrry Mejia, Raul Valdes, and Mike Pelfrey, contributing a total of 11 innings of scoreless relief, although Takahashi allowed a lead off double to Joe Mather in the 14th inning, and then committed an error on the sacrifice attempt by Brendan Ryan, and with first and third, nobody out, and both the infield and the outfield in, he struck out both Skip Schumaker and Ryan Ludwick, then after walking Albert Pujols intentionally, he struck out Cardinals reliever Blake Hawksworth looking.
- In the bottom of the 15th inning, Jenrry Mejia retired the first two batters in the inning, but walked Felipe Lopez and then allowed a single to Joe Mather, and with runners at the corners, retired Brendan Ryan on a weak ground out.
- Angel Pagan led off the 16th inning with a single and then Mike Jacobs sacrificed him to second, and with one out Jose Reyes grounded out to the right side to move Pagan to third, but Luis Castillo struck out looking to end the inning.
- In the 18th inning, Tony La Russa inserted Felipe Lopez to pitch and Kyle Lohse in left field, and got Henry Blanco to fly out, and then Raul Valdes got an infield single and on an errant throw to first by Brendan Ryan, headed for second, and was called out on the throw by Pujols when he didn’t slide. After Lopez walked Angel Pagan flew out to right field to end the inning.
- Joe Mather relieved Lopez in the 19th inning, and he opened the inning by walking Jose Reyes, and then Luis Castillo sacrificed Reyes to second, who bunted the ball to Lopez, who was back at third base, and then La Russa decided to walk David Wright to face Jason Bay, who was 0 for 7 with five strikeouts coming into the at bat, and he hit Bay to load the bases for Jeff Francoeur, who hit a fly ball to the left field wall, which allowed Reyes to score the first run of the game.
- Francisco Rodriguez came on to try and earn his first save of the year in the 19th inning, and while he got a lucky call when Ryan Ludwick attempted to steal second base with nobody out and was thrown out by Henry Blanco, Albert Pujols followed with a double in the left-centerfield gap, which would have certainly scored Ludwick, and then the pitchers spot came up again – this time with Kyle Lohse as the batter, and Lohse grounded out weakly to Jose Reyes, moving Pujols to third with two outs, but then Rodriguez allowed an RBI single to Yadier Molina.
- La Russa left Joe Mather in for the 20th inning, and allowed a slow dribbling infield single to Angel Pagan in front of the plate, and then Mike Jacobs hit a hard single to right field, moving Pagan to third with nobody out, and then Jose Reyes flew out to center allowing Pagan to score, and the Mets regained the lead.
- Mike Pelfrey came on in the bottom of the 20th inning, and he actually was in the low 90s with his fastball to start the frame, but appeared to tire quickly, but managed to earned his first career save.
- Despite 20 innings of baseball tonight, Jeff Francoeur could not extend his season opening hitting streak to 11 games.
- David Wright, Jason Bay, and Jeff Francoeur were a combined 1 for 19 with eight strikeouts in the 3-4-5 spots in the lineup.
- Nobody reached third base in this game until the Cardinals loaded the bases in the bottom of the tenth.
- Jason Bay struck out four more times in his 0 for 7 night, and he now has 18 strikeouts in his first 45 at bats as a Met.
- The Mets had only nine hits in 20 innings tonight, all singles.
- The Mets turned four double plays, committed two errors, and stole only one base although they were caught stealing twice.
- Both teams combined to leave 35 men in scoring position – the Mets left 13 and the Cardinals left 22.
- Both teams combined to go just 1 for 25 with runners in scoring position, and despite the win, the Mets were 0 for 7 in those situations, as they scored both of their runs with good situational hitting – sacrifice flies from both Jeff Francoeur and Jose Reyes.
- 651 pitches were thrown in this game by both teams, 398 of which were strikes.
- The Mets walked the Cardinals 11 times – four walks to Albert Pujols, not including two intentional passes to the Cardinals slugger.
- 46 of the possible 50 players were used tonight, two of those not used were yesterday’s starting pitchers – Oliver Perez and Chris Carpenter – and tomorrow’s starting pitcher for the Cardinals, Adam Wainwright.
- According to Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post, the Mets have played games of at least 20 innings five times, and this was their first victory in such games.
…what a game…period…i’ve never seen such anemic offense and enjoyed the game as much as i did tonight…by the time Felipe Lopez took the hill in the 18th inning, i was beyond the point of amusement…as bad as it was, i laughed out loud when Raul Valdes was tagged out at second base when he didn’t slide in the 18th inning…K-Rod absolutely killed me in the 19th…i mean, he got a lucky call when Henry Blanco managed to throw out Ryan Ludwick on his stolen base attempt, and he let, of all people, Yadier Molina kill him and single in Albert Pujols…ugh…i mean, why didn’t they walk Molina in that spot to face Allen Craig which was undoubtedly the better matchup…i don’t want to be too critical, because tonight was insane, but i could not, for the life of me, figure out why the Mets were up there hacking against Joe Mather…of the 38 pitches he threw in two innings, only 14 were strikes…
…Santana lacked his good velocity once again today, but appeared to get stronger and more consistent with his fastball as time went on, and his final pitch of the day was 92 miles per hour…overall, he was fantastic today, and it’s too bad his team got him just one hit…
…i think Dan Warthen and Jerry Manuel have handled Pujols so well thus far in this series…they aren’t letting him have one chance to beat him, which is the absolute right call, even if it means walking him with a runner at first base and putting a man in scoring position, which they did on three separate occasions, i think…of course, the decision was a no brainer, considering Tony LaRussa double switched Matt Holliday and a Cardinals relief pitcher was hitting behind Pujols on two different occasions, and they both happened to come up with the bases loaded in extra innings…
…Tony La Russa hurt himself when he double switched Matt Holliday out of the game, and using his spot in the lineup for the pitcher, allowing the Mets to walk Pujols on two consecutive chances to load the bases with two outs to face a Cardinal reliever…
…i haven’t seen it much this season from the Mets but they appeared to be smiling and enjoying what was transpiring, or a lack thereof for that matter…
…i got an email after the win tonight from a fan who said it’s games like this which is why he is a Mets fan, and i have to agree…it’s games like this, where we live, die, and come back to life which gives us reasons to have hope in this team…
Game Ball:
One for Johan Santana for his stellar start, and one for Mike Pelfrey who showed his guts in earning his first career save, in the 20th inning.
Up Next:
The Mets conclude their series with the Cardinals tomorrow night at 8:05 pm, with John Maine facing Adam Wainwright.
