Mets blowout Cardinals at Citi, but hold their collective breath

New York’s offense breaks out with an 11-4 victory. Plus, a look at the fragility of a baseball season after Max Scherzer’s injury.

Rich MacLeod

May 19, 2022

What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️

The Mets defeated the Cardinals 11-4 on Wednesday night at Citi Field (box)
RHP Max Scherzer exited the game with “left side discomfort” in the 6th inning and will undergo medical imaging on Thursday
1B Pete Alonso hit a three-run home run (9) as part of a four RBI night in the victory
The Mets offense went 7-for-15 with RISP and recorded double-digit hits for the first time in seven games
After a tense series a few weeks ago in St. Louis, three more Mets were drilled in last night’s game
The Mets are now 12-0 in their last 12 games coming after a loss
New York has won the season series vs the Cardinals for the first time since 2014

Who’s Hot🔥

RHP Adam Ottavino is unscored upon in seven of his eight appearances during the month of May
1B Pete Alonso is now tied for the major league lead with 33 RBI after driving in four on Wednesday night
After going 2-for-5 with a double and two RBI, 2B/LF Jeff McNeil now has 14 multi-hit games this season after recording just 21 of them all last season

Today’s Game 🗓

Match-up: Mets (25-14) vs Cardinals (20-17)

Where: Citi Field — Flushing, NY

Starters: RHP Chris Bassitt (4-2, 2.34 ERA) vs. RHP Dakota Hudson (3-2, 3.06 ERA)

When: 1:10 PM EDT

Where to Watch: SNY

The fragility of a baseball season 📝

Boy, did that escalate quickly.

It was all fun and games for the Mets on Wednesday night, as their offense was seeing signs of a badly-needed breakout performance with a 6-2 lead over the Cardinals. That is, of course, until Max Scherzer threw a pitch with two outs in the 6th inning that caused him to signal to the dugout that he had to leave the game, sending Mets fans into a collective panic spiral out of thin air.

“I’m done… I’m done,” Scherzer said to the dugout, signaling his exit.

While the club won’t get further details about the injury until later today, and Scherzer seemed to downplay it following the game, it’s moments like this that remind you just how fragile a baseball season can be. How that at any completely random moment, something can happen that entirely shifts the tenor and outlook of your season.

“Max is a good pitcher, obviously … we’d like to have him,” Buck Showalter said after Wednesday’s game. “If we don’t, the season keeps going. They don’t wait for us. Ask Jake.”

And that’s the thing about the marathon that is a baseball season, it just keeps marching forward. The Mets have been doing it without Jacob deGrom, they’ll be doing it for the foreseeable future without his replacement Tylor Megill and now they face the daunting possibility of doing it without Scherzer.

Things had been going so well for the Mets up until this point, 11 games over .500 and in first place every day since Opening Day. But with each day comes new challenges, and Wednesday night best shows how quickly those good vibes can be taken away — even if it’s only temporary. It’s just the nature of the sport.

Down on the Farm 🌾

Francisco Álvarez (C, No. 1 prospect, Double-A): 3-for-5
Alex Ramirez (OF, No. 6 prospect, Single-A): 1-for-3, RBI, run scored
Calvin Ziegler (RHP, No. 11 prospect, Single-A): 4.2 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 9 K

Box Scores: Triple-A (PPD) | Double-A | High-A | Single-A

Around the League 🚩

Cardinals DH Albert Pujols become the first player in major league history to be Top 10 in hits, doubles and home runs all-time
The Brewers engineered a 9th inning comeback and defeated the Braves in extra innings, 7-6
Angels RHP/DH Shohei Ohtani averaged 98.6 MPH on his fastball (career-high) on Wednesday, but the club lost to Rangers 6-5
Despite coming from behind to tie the game in their final at-bat, the Marlins fell to the Nationals 4-3 in 10 innings
Phillies RHP Zack Wheeler threw seven shutout innings with nine strikeouts in the club’s 3-0 win over the Padres