SAME COLD METS
Open second half with more hitting woes, wasting Noah’s start
ST. LOUIS — It’s deja vu all over again. Noah Syndergaard threw seven strong innings Friday night, but the offense could not help him as the Mets fell to the Cardinals, 3-2, at Busch Stadium.
Like the starters did all through the first half of the season, Syndergaard gave the Mets a chance to open the second half right, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the incompetence at the plate.
The Mets, who didn’t score between the second and eighth innings following Curtis Granderson’s homer run to lead off the game, managed to get the tying run to third base in the ninth, but Cardinals closer Trevor Rosenthal struck out pinchhitter John Mayberry Jr. to end it.
“It’s frustrating,” said Mets catcher Kevin Plawecki, whose low throw trying to catch Kolten Wong stealing in the sixth went into center field and set up the Cardinals’ first run. “Noah threw a great game, (Curtis Granderson) started us off real hot out of the gates, but unfortunately we couldn’t give Noah more than we did.”
Syndergaard held the Cardinals to two runs on five hits in seven innings. He walked one and struck out six. But he couldn’t hold a 1-0 lead, allowing two runs in the sixth, including Jhonny Peralta’s go-ahead home run.
The Mets’ hitters settled right back to where they were for most of the first half of the season. It was the 35th time this season the Mets (47-43) have scored two runs or fewer.
After giving up the home run to Granderson, Cardinals righty Lance Lynn (7-5) shut down the Mets down for six innings, retiring 12 straight from the third to the seventh. He struck out nine and the Cardinals bullpen struck out three more.
The Mets rallied in the ninth when Lucas Duda ripped a one-out single off Rosenthal before second baseman Wong couldn’t corral Plawecki’s shallow fly ball.
Kirk Nieuwenhuis, rewarded with a start for his three-homer game before the All-Star break, struck out for a third time for the second out. But with Ruben Tejada at the plate, the runners advanced on Rosenthal’s wild pitch and then Duda scored on Tejada’s infield single, cutting the Cardinals lead to 3-2.
It went for naught as Mayberry whiffed in a nine-pitch at-bat.
“You always think when you’ve got a couple guys on, we’re still in the game, we got the middle of the lineup up,” said Terry Collins, who was ejected in the seventh for arguing a strike-two call on Duda from the dugout. “Obviously it’s against one of the great closers in the game. You look up at the end of the game and we’ve still got a chance to win.”
With the Mets offense among the worst in the National League, it was not much of a chance. The Mets ended the first half dead last in the majors with a team batting average of .233, 29th in OPS (.660), 28th in runs scored (310) and 26th in on-base percentage (.298).
That is a drag on what has been some spectacular pitching, including Syndergaard’s start Friday night.
Before the game, Collins talked about the plans to limit the innings of Syndergaard (170), Matt Harvey (185-190) and Jacob deGrom (200), even though the team is going back to a five-man rotation with rookie Steven Matz on the disabled list.
The Mets will use a spot starter at times during the rest of the season to get the young pitchers through September, when the Mets hope to be playing meaningful games.
After Bartolo Colon and Jon Niese throw the final two games in St. Louis, Harvey will start a crucial series against the Nationals, the NL East leaders, Monday. DeGrom will pitch Tuesday and Syndergaard will pitch the series finale Wednesday at Nationals Park. Syndergaard (4-5) tried to set the tone for the second half on Friday. He did his job and then had to watch as the offense failed him once again.
“We battled our tails off until the very last strike,” Syndergaard said. “We all knew how important it was to come out after the second half on a good streak. but we came
up a little short today.”