Cardinals 5, Mets 4: Gee, Mets Fall Just Short Of St. Louis Sweep

Dillon Gee struck out five Cardinals through the first two innings and some wondered sarcastically if he'd challenge the MLB record for strikeouts in a game. He finished with eight whiffs, one shy of the career-high nine strikeouts he laid on the Padres a week ago. He walked two and gave up three runs in seven innings, but the Mets didn't manage much against Kyle Lohse and Gee was on the short end of a 3-1 game when the Mets came to bat in the bottom of the seventh. Scott Hairston took Gee off the hook with a two-out, pinch-hit, two-run homer off Marc Rzepczynski which knotted the game at three.

Then Jon Rauch happened, and the next thing we knew the Mets were down 5-3. They clawed back to 5-4 in the bottom of the eighth but left the tying run on third when David Wright lined out to Carlos Beltran to end the inning. Jason Motte struck out Daniel Murphy and Jordany Valdespin to wrap up a perfect ninth and help salvage the final game of the series for the Cardinals.

We knew it was over when...

The easy and cheap answer is "When Jon Rauch came in from the bullpen," so I'll go with that.

What else?

• Lucas Duda hit his team-high ninth home run of the season.
• Tim Byrdak appeared in his 500th game of the 2012 season. Congrats, Tim!
• Ike Davis went 0-for-2 and is hitting .164/.227/.281.

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by MetsFan4Decades; her effort in the game thread embiggens us all.