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Final Score: Cardinals 5, Mets 1—April Fool’s

The Mets carry the tradition of poor showings on Sundays into 2018.

By Allison McCague
MLB: St. Louis Cardinals at New York Mets Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

The Mets failed to complete the sweep of the Cardinals today, dropping the final game of the opening series of the 2018 season 5-1—their first loss of the season. After starting the season with some electric pitching performances and contributions from up and down the offense, today’s game was pretty much the opposite of that in every way.

Steven Matz’s start was very much a mixed bag. He flashed his good stuff at times, but often struggled with his location, missing up in the zone, especially on his off-speed pitches. And he suffered for it, running up his pitch count early with a lot of full counts. He was not assisted by home plate umpire C.B. Bucknor, who had a very small strike zone and often squeezed pitchers on both teams.

The Cardinals’ first run came in the second inning, as Paul DeJong continued his dominance of the Mets, hitting a solo home run to put the Cards up 1-0. DeJong would later hit another solo home run off of Jacob Rhame in the eighth inning to cap off the Cardinals’ scoring. The Mets came right back in the bottom of the inning, manufacturing a run from a Plawecki walk, a sacrifice bunt by Matz, and a single by Amed Rosario.

But that would be all for the scoring for the Mets this afternoon, who faded relatively meekly into the distance, save for Juan Lagares’ three hits on the day. Steven Matz exited the game after just four innings, having allowed three runs on four hits, including another solo homer to Yadier Molina. The Mets bullpen surrendered an additional two runs on the afternoon and Paul Sewald threw 55 pitches—two short of his career high—during his two innings of work. A.J. Ramos was the only Mets pitcher unscathed; he pitched a scoreless ninth, retiring the Cardinals in order.

Full recap to follow.

Game Thread Roll Call

  1. oleosmirf: 273
  2. PJpridezone: 253
  3. MetsFan4Decades: 128
  4. The Nameless One: 108
  5. MookieTheCat: 84
  6. Gina: 67
  7. Allison McCague: 53
  8. JR and the Off-Balance Shots: 52
  9. amazins8669: 47
  10. NateW: 40

Nice job by oleosmirf; his effort in the GameThread embiggens us all.

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