Cardinals 3 - 0 Mets
Final
  for this game

Cards rely on Wainwright against Mets

Apr 22, 2014 - 2:42 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - Adam Wainwright tries to pitch the St. Louis Cardinals to a win Tuesday against the New York Mets in the second installment of a four-game series from Citi Field.

The Cardinals have lost two straight and four of their last six games, and dropped to 4-4 on an 11-game road trip with Monday's 2-0 loss at New York.

Wainwright aims for his fourth win of the season and tossed a two-hit shutout last Thursday in an 8-0 win at Washington. He struck out eight and walked three to improve to 3-1 in four starts with a 1.80 earned run average. He has lasted at least seven innings in every start and owns 32 strikeouts.

The right-hander will make his fourth start on the road and has faced the Mets eight times in his career (6 start), going 2-4 with 6.02 ERA. Wainwright was 1-1 in two starts against the Mets last season.

Cardinals starter Tyler Lyons was saddled with the hard-luck loss in the series opener and gave up both runs and six hits in six innings. He fanned seven batters and walked four.

Matt Carpenter, Allen Craig and Yadier Molina had two hits apiece in defeat.

"Being frustrated, I don't think there's anything wrong with that," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "I think the bigger story is that our offense will get going on a consistent basis."

St. Louis has scored seven runs in the last four games.

The Mets have been playing consistent baseball all season and won for the fifth time in seven tries with Jenrry Mejia on the mound Monday. Mejia struck out seven and walked three over 6 2/3 scoreless innings. He scattered four hits and improved to 3-0.

"He gave us more than we expected, for sure," Mets manager Terry Collins said of Mejia.

Scott Rice, Carlos Torres and Kyle Farnsworth kept the Cardinals off the scoreboard the rest of the way with Farnsworth posting his first save in the ninth inning.

Travis d'Arnaud went 2-for-4 with an RBI and David Wright had a hit and drove in the other run for New York, which is 2-2 on a 10-game homestand. Wright extended his hitting streak to 12 games and is batting .370 with 20 hits and nine RBI in that stretch.

The Mets could see Bobby Abreu play on Tuesday after he was called up from Triple-A Las Vegas of the Pacific Coast League. The veteran Abreu hit .395 with one homer and nine RBI in 15 games at the Triple-A affiliate.

"Bobby certainly brings that quality Major League bat (where) the other manager's got to say, 'I don't want him up there,'" Collins said of Abreu. "He's been an outstanding hitter in his career, so we wanted to get him up here."

Dillon Gee draws the start for the Mets Tuesday and won his first game of the season in last Wednesday's 5-2 victory at Arizona. Gee threw seven shutout innings and allowed three walks with three K's and no walks. He is 1-0 in four starts to go along with a 3.71 earned run average.

Gee, a right-hander, has made four career starts against St. Louis, going 2-1 with a 3.65 ERA in 24 2/3 innings. Gee is 14-15 lifetime in 45 games (43 starts) at Citi Field.

The Cardinals won five of seven meetings with New York last year and have won eight of the last 12 head-to-head matchups overall.






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