Mets’ win streak ends as Cardinals star Paul Goldschmidt dominates
Pete Alonso tormented St. Louis over the first three days of the Mets’ four-game series there. On Sunday, the Cardinals’ superstar first baseman returned the favor.
Reigning NL MVP Paul Goldschmidt crushed a go-ahead home run and picked up three RBI in the Cardinals’ 7-3 victory, helping St. Louis avoid a sweep while snapping the Mets’ four-game win streak.
Goldschmidt drove in St. Louis’ first three runs, delivering a third-inning RBI single before his two-run homer in the fifth inning that ended Mets starter Carlos Carrasco’s latest uneven outing. Goldschmidt, who went 3-for-5, also scored the Cardinals’ fourth run of the game during a four-run seventh inning.
“I’m just trying to finish my season strong,” said Carrasco, who allowed nine hits and three runs over four innings.
“We’re going to have a lot of ups and downs,” he said. “I’m pretty sure I have more downs than ups, but I’m just working every day to get better.”
Alonso continued to crush the Cardinals, slugging his third home run of the series. His 423-foot solo shot landed in Busch Stadium’s third deck and gave the Mets a short-lived 2-1 lead that Goldschmidt erased with his blast.
Alonso’s home run came against Cardinals starter Dakota Hudson, a Mississippi State alum whom he faced in the SEC with Florida and in the collegiate Cape Cod League. Alonso now has 39 home runs, putting him one away from his third 40-homer season.
It was an eventful series for Alonso, who hit a 437-foot home run Thursday and a 466-foot shot Saturday. He also made headlines on the day he didn’t homer. On Friday, Alonso hurled the baseball rookie Masyn Winn struck for his first MLB hit into the stands, leading to boos from Cardinals fans and angering St. Louis pitcher Miles Mikolas.
Alonso later described tossing the memento as a “huge mistake” and apologized to the 21-year-old Winn with a pricey bottle of Don Julio 1942 tequila and a signed bat. Cardinals security ultimately retrieved the ball for Winn.
Carrasco, who fell to 3-7 on Sunday, has a 6.42 ERA this season. Asked if he would remove the 36-year-old from the rotation to look at other pitchers, manager Buck Showalter said the Mets still rely on Carrasco, an impending free agent.
“Those are things that, organizationally, we would look at, but it’s not something we are thinking about right now,” Showalter said.
The Mets were robbed of some early offense when Brooklyn native Richie Palacios made a leaping catch at the center field wall on a DJ Stewart drive in the second inning.
The loss dropped the underachieving Mets to 58-67. Their win streak came about three weeks after the team unloaded aces Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, relievers David Robertson and Dominic Leone, and outfielders Tommy Pham and Mark Canha before the trade deadline. The Mets, whose $360 million payroll is the largest in MLB history, lost their first six games after the deadline.
The Mets entered Sunday six games out of the third and final National League wild card spot and with a 2.6% chance of making the playoffs, according to FanGraphs.
Next up for the Mets is a trip to Atlanta, where they’ll face an MLB-best Braves team that took three of four from them at Citi Field last weekend. David Peterson (3-7, 5.45 ERA) is scheduled to pitch Monday against rookie Allan Winans (1-0, 1.59 ERA), whom the Mets originally drafted in 2018.
