The Mets had a fresh bunch of call-ups in the dugout today against the St. Louis Cardinals, but that wasn’t enough to trump a fantastic pitching performance by Jaime Garcia. The Mets only managed one run against Garcia in his 7.1 innings and ended up losing to the Cards 5-1.
New York’s starter Matt Harvey hit a rough patch in the second inning and allowed a string of singles that made the score 2-0 St. Louis. Skip Schumaker and Daniel Descalso each had an RBI hit and Matt Carpenter capped off the rally with a sac fly to give the Cardinals a 3-0 lead. Harvey was able to recover and got through the next three innings without incident, but enough damage had already been done.
Jaime Garcia was successful in shutting down the Mets every time they put runners on base. With one out in the fourth, Scott Hairston and Daniel Murphy reached on singles, but Garcia struck back with strikeouts of Kelly Shoppach and Jason Bay. Later, in the sixth, the Mets once again had two runners on with one out, but Murphy grounded sharply into an inning-ending double play.
New York finally broke through against the Cards in the eighth, when Justin Turner led off with a single and eventually scored on a Mike Baxter sac fly. There was a chance to do more damage in the inning, but Daniel Murphy’s long fly ball was snagged by left fielder Adron Chambers, who was only in the game as an injury replacement for Matt Holliday. If Holliday hadn’t left in the seventh with lower back tightness, the Mets might have a couple of more runs next to their name in the box score.
The highlight of the game for Mets fans may have been the MLB debut of Jeurys Familia. The young fireballer struck out Lance Berkman to start off his career and, after a John Jay single, he got Matt Carpenter to ground into a twin killing to finish the eighth inning.
Turning Point: The rally by St. Louis in the third inning gave Garcia all the support he would need to win the game. It also rolled up Harvey’s pitch count, which contributed to him leaving the game after just five innings pitched.
Game Ball: Familia has seen his stock go up and down throughout his time in New York’s minor league system. Tonight was a positive sign for the prospect, as he put up a doughnut in his first MLB inning.
Next Game: The Mets are right back at it tomorrow afternoon. They’ll face the Cards at 1:45 p.m. with R.A. Dickey on the mound looking for his 18th win. Adam Wainwright will be the pitcher for St. Louis.
