Mets drop 1st half finale to Cards
ST. LOUIS » Tommy Pham, Paul DeJong and Luke Voit homered and Lance Lynn pitched seven innings of three-hit ball as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the New York Mets 6-0 on Sunday.
It was Lynn’s longest outing since May 23, when he threw 123 pitches in eight scoreless innings in a 2-1 loss to Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers. Lynn’s two strikeouts is a season low, but he needed just 93 pitches while facing two batters over the minimum.
Lynn (7-6) did not allow a runner past first and lowered his ERA to 3.61.
Trevor Rosenthal struck out the side in the eighth and John Brebbia pitched a scoreless ninth as the Cardinals finished a 6-4 homestand and moved into a tie with the Chicago Cubs for second place in the National League Central.
Steven Matz (2-2) gave up five runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings, his shortest outing since June 3. He struck out a seasonlow one.
DeJong finished 2 for 4 and is 10 for his last 13 and is the first rookie and first Cardinals player in the modern era to have seven extra base hits in a three-game series.
Matt Carpenter reached and scored twice. Yadier Molina had his second RBI in two games.
Pham drove a 3-1 pitch from Matz the other way over the right-field wall to give the Cardinals a 3-0 lead in the third. It was Pham’s 11th homer of the season and first in six games.
DeJong’s homer, his third in three games, made it 4-0 in the fourth.
Voit greeted Seth Lugo with an opposite field homer, his third in his last seven games, to right to make it 5-0.
Carpenter led off the first with a double and scored to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.
It was the first time in six games that the Cardinals scored in the opening inning and it broke Matz’s 17-inning scoreless streak, the second-longest of his career.
EARLY EXIT
Pham left the game with right hip tightness after the sixth inning. He was 3 for 3 with two runs scored.
CONFORTO ZONE
Playing for the first time since missing the last 10 games due to a bruise left hand, Mets outfielder Michael Conforto went 1 for 4 with a single in the fourth inning.
Mets: INF Neil Walker (partial tear, left hamstring) is continuing his
rehab at the team’s spring training facility in Florida . ... RHP Jeurys Familia (blood clot, right arm) is expected to start throwing this week.
Cardinals: 2B Kolten Wong (right tricep strain) went 1 for 4 in a rehab game with Double-A Springfield on Saturday.
UP NEXT
Mets: RHP Jacob deGrom (9-3, 3.65) will kick off a 10-game home stand against Colorado after the All-Star break. He is 2-0 with a 0.95 ERA in four career starts against the Rockies.
Cardinals: No official post All-Star Break starter has been named.