Cardinals 2 - 3 Mets
Final
  for this game

Cards try to stay in win column against Mets

Apr 23, 2014 - 2:35 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The St. Louis Cardinals aim to take a series lead over the New York Mets when the two clubs resume a four-game set Wednesday at Citi Field.

The Cardinals dropped the opener of this series, 2-0, on Monday and rebounded the following night with a 3-0 win behind Adam Wainwright's seven shutout innings. Wainwright improved to 4-1, scattered four hits, struck out three batters and did not issue a walk.

Wainwright did suffer a hyperextended knee, but it's nothing serious.

"Well I expect to get off to a strong start and finish strong too," said Wainwright. "I've made some good adjustments. I'm more of a complete pitcher than I've ever been in my career so I'm just having fun doing that."

Kevin Siegrist and Trevor Rosenthal each threw a scoreless inning of relief with Rosenthal tacking on his sixth save.

Matt Holliday ended 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored, while Jon Jay added two hits and drove in a pair of runs for the Cardinals, who are 5-4 on an 11- game road trip and had lost two straight and three of four games. Yadier Molina extended his hitting streak to 13 games with a 1-for-4 effort.

Michael Wacha takes the mound for the Cardinals Wednesday and he is coming off last Friday's 3-1 loss at Washington. He allowed three runs -- one earned -- in seven innings and had won his previous two starts. Wacha is 2-1 with a 1.73 earned run average in four starts.

Wacha faced the Mets for the first time in a 9-2 win last June 11 and earned the victory with six innings of two-run ball.

The Mets hope to get their bats going again after Wainwright shut them down.

Eric Young, Daniel Murphy, Chris Young and Lucas Duda provided the hits and Mets starting pitcher Dillon Gee performed well in defeat, allowing two runs across six innings of work. Gee allowed the runs in the fourth inning.

"It seemed early on in that (fourth) inning I got myself into that predicament," said Gee. "It was one of those things were you get a couple of ground balls and they find holes and then all of a sudden you're in a mess there."

David Wright was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and his 12-game hit streak ended. Curtis Granderson was 0-for-3 and hasn't had a hit since April 14 at Arizona. He is batting just .116 with a home run and five RBI.

New York is 2-3 on a 10-game homestand and will try to even the mark Wednesday with Jon Niese on the hill. Niese is 0-2 with a 2.84 ERA in three starts and was dealt the hard-luck loss in last Friday's 6-0 defeat to Atlanta, which posted only a run and four hits in six innings off the left-hander. Niese struck out a season-high seven batters, but had a season-worst three walks.

Niese has made five starts in his career against the Cardinals, going 3-1 with a 2.00 ERA in 27 innings of work.

The Cardinals won five of seven meetings with New York last year and have won nine of the last 13 head-to-head matchups overall.






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