SS Dejong, Cards swing to series win

NEW YORK — Paul Dejong again picked on a favorite foe.

Dejong tagged the Mets for a tiebreaking home run in the eighth inning Sunday, sending St. Louis Cardinals over New York 4-3. The young shortstop is 30 for 83 (.361) with nine homers and 10 doubles over 20 career games against the Mets. He has connected for five homers in his last five games at Citi Field. The Cardinals won despite getting outhit 10-3. They took three of four in the series, and Dejong homered in each victory.

“Nothing comes to mind,” Dejong said of his mastery of the Mets.

Dejong connected off Chris Flexen (0-3) for his solo drive.

“He hung a 3-1 slider. I was looking fastball and I just reacted,” Dejong said. “I thought they were pitching around me early in the count and they challenged me late and I was ready.”

The loss was the latest in which Mets relievers couldn’t shut down an opponent.

New York’s bullpen has allowed 15 earned runs over its last 20 1/3 innings.

“The tale of the game was that they were one swing away, we were one swing away and they made one good swing,” manager Mickey Callaway added. “They got the big one. We didn’t.” The Cardinals rallied against New York’s bullpen in each of their wins in series.

“You talked about resilience, we talked about different ways we beat people,” Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said. “The entire series was indicative of that.”

Paul Goldschmidt hit a prodigious home run off the facade of the second deck and scored twice for St. Louis, which went 5-5 on its season-long 10-game road trip.