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 As it was, nobody involved in the wild and windy affair at Citi
Field — which featured a record strikeout pace by a starting
pitcher before he suddenly lost the strike zone, the elements
impacting both teams and replay confirming a catcher sweep tagging
the potential tying run at the plate in the ninth inning — is
likely to forget it anytime soon.
"My heart's still racing," said Mets catcher Travis d'Arnaud, who
completed a perfect relay sequence by tagging Cardinals third
baseman Matt Carpenter for the second out of the ninth.
"Just the whole game was a mental grind," said Mets center fielder
Kirk Nieuwenhuis, who fielded pinch hitter Daniel Descalso's double
and began the relay by firing to shortstop Ruben Tejada.
The Mets were ground up in the first three innings by Cardinals
starter Michael Wacha, who recorded his first nine outs via
strikeout and allowed only one ball to be hit into play (a
first-inning single by slumping right fielder Curtis Granderson).
Wacha walked two in the first three innings but otherwise completely
befuddled the Mets. He ended the third inning by striking out third
baseman David Wright on four pitches.
Wacha's night came to an unexpected halt after a fourth inning in
which the Mets took advantage of his sudden wildness. Wacha allowed
two hits and three walks — including two bases-loaded passes to Tejada and Nieuwenhuis — as New York took the lead for good.
"It showed a lot of character from this team not getting down about
the first three innings," Nieuwenhuis said, "because that was
tough."
Nieuwenhuis said the fierce winds (gusting up to 41 mph at first
pitch) impacted pitches, but Wacha — whose hat blew off in the
second inning — said the weather had nothing to do with the loss of
his command.
"I felt good the first three innings, for sure," Wacha said. "Then
I'm not really sure what happened out there. Just mechanically
wasn't where I needed to be."
Wacha (2-2) allowed three hits and set career highs with five walks
and 10 strikeouts over the four innings. He became only the fourth
starting pitcher in history to strike out 10 batters in four innings
or less — but the third in the last eight months behind Seattle's
Felix Hernandez and Cleveland's Danny Salazar.
"We know that he'll get back out there and be the same guy that we
have seen for the majority of the time that we've seen him,"
Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said of the 21-year-old Wacha, who
has a 2.57 ERA in his first 20 big-league appearances.
Mets left-hander Jonathon Niese allowed just one run on six hits and
two walks while striking out three over 6 2/3 innings. A solo homer
by first baseman Lucas Duda extended the Mets' lead to 3-1 in the
sixth before the Cardinals stranded three runners — two in scoring
position — in the seventh and eighth.
"You look at these one-run games, that's going to be the difference — doing the little things, getting runs in when they give (them) to
us," Matheny said.
The Cardinals finally broke through in the ninth against
right-hander Kyle Farnsworth. After consecutive one-out singles by
center fielder Jon Jay and Carpenter (his fourth hit of the night),
Descalso crushed a 2-0 pitch to deep center field.
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Nieuwenhuis said he thought he would catch it, but the ball kept
sailing in the wind and eluded him for a double. Jay scored easily
from second, and third base coach Jose Oquendo didn't hesitate in
waving home Carpenter. "I thought for sure it was going to be a tie game," Mets manager
Terry Collins said. Tejada, who dropped a fourth-inning popup that drifted back in from
short left field, had his back to the plate when he caught
Nieuwenhuis' throw. He whirled and fired to d'Arnaud, who barely
caught the left side of Carpenter's jersey an instant before his
foot touched home plate.
"A 180 spin throw like that, a perfect throw — I still can't
believe I witnessed it," d'Arnaud said.
The Cardinals used their first replay challenge of the season but
the play was upheld after a short review.
"I saw him in my peripherals, kind of passing me," d'Arnaud said.
"So I started tagging him instead of coming wide. And fortunately I
got him before he touched the plate."
Matheny said he agreed with the call upon watching it in the locker
room.
"It takes a perfectly executed cutoff and relay," Matheny said. "And
they did it."
A few minutes later and a few hundred feet down the hall, d'Arnaud
gazed at a television and watched the replay several times.
"It was fun," d'Arnaud said. "A lot of fun."
NOTES: Cardinals RHP Adam Wainwright said he felt fine Wednesday,
less than 24 hours after he suffered a hyperextended right knee
while trying to field the final out of the seventh inning of the
Cardinals' 3-0 win. Wainwright went through his usual
day-after-start routine and said he was just "a hair sore" when he
fully extended his right leg. He expects to make his next start as
scheduled on Sunday against Pittsburgh. ... RHP Michael Wacha had
nine strikeouts in just one of his first 13 career starts for the
Cardinals. He whiffed nine when he threw 8 2/3 no-hit innings
against Washington last Sept. 24. ... A scoring change by Major
League Baseball took a hit away from Mets 2B Daniel Murphy. The
single he was credited with against the Braves on Saturday has been
ruled an error on Atlanta 2B Dan Uggla. ... Mets RF Curtis
Granderson broke an 0-for-22 stretch with his first-inning single.
His previous career-long hitless streak was an 0-for-21 drought with
the Tigers in 2006.
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