clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Mets @ Cardinals 7.19 recap - Mets outlast Cards

Mets outlast the Cardinals in 18 inning marathon that lasted nearly 6 hours.

By WyoCardsFan
Jon Niese HOURS AGO.
Jon Niese HOURS AGO.
Scott Kane-USA TODAY Sports

New York Mets @ St. Louis Cardinals

Jon Niese (5-8, 3.61 ERA, 4.15 FIP, 1.376 WHIP) vs. Tim Cooney (0-0, 4.34 ERA, 4.45 FIP, 1.393 WHIP)
1:15 p.m. CT
Busch Stadium - St. Louis, Missouri

Today's Lineups -

Some News -


  • Jason Heyward apparently had some hydration issues that led to cramping after his fifth hit last night.  He's also nursing a cold.
  • Pittsburgh falls to Milwaukee in sweep-fashion 6-1- MLB.com
  • Cubs take on the Braves and take the early lead - MLB.com
  • Cincinnati goes for the Ohio State Championship, led by Johnny Cueto.  Lots of scouts on hand to get a read on those crazy Redlegs.  The Reds lose in 11, 5-3 - MLB.com

Things that happened -

Top halves -

Tim Cooney started off well enough, striking out one and inducing two fly-outs in the first for a clean inning.

Wilmer Flores collected the first Met hit in the second, a one-out double to left.

Tim kept rolling, allowing only a walk each in the third and fourth.  He had a couple good-looking strikeouts using curveballs and changeups with success.

Cooney worked around a Ruben Tejada double into the left-center gap in the fifth.  Tim looked very good in doing so.

With two outs in the sixth, Cooney finally started to struggle.  He allowed a walk to Lucas Duda, followed by a line drive single to Flores, and then another walk to John Mayberry, Jr.  Mr. Matheny had seen enough.  He signaled for Seth Maness to enter the game to get out of the jam.  Maness was able to get the strikeout of Kevin Plawecki to end the inning and preserve Cooney's strong start.

Cooney's final line: 5 2/3 IP, 0 R, 0 E, 3 H, 4 BB, 7 K, 102 pitches thrown.

Maness and Randy Choate teamed up to get through the seventh.  Juan Lagares reached on a tough-hop grounder that Peralta wasn't able to corral.

Sam Tuivailala checked in in the eighth.  Michael Cuddyer singled up the right field line.  He got to third by way of a passed ball and a groundout.  After Sam issued an intentional walk to pinch hitter Curtis Granderson, Plawecki came up with two outs and runners on the corners for what felt like the biggest at bat to that point in the game.  Plawecki worked a full count, but ultimately grounded out to third to keep the game tied at 0.

Kevin Siegrist in the ninth.  He had a little trouble with control, and issued a walk, but got through the inning, the third out coming by way of a pickoff of Eric Campbell.

Miguel Socolovich gave up a lead off single to Murphy.  Danny Muno sac bunted him to second.  Murphy got to third on Duda's groundout.  Kolten Wong, shifted way around into shallow right field, came up with a run-saving play on a Flores groundball.  Reynolds helped out with a great scoop on the backend of the play.  It all preserved the 0-0 tie.

Carlos Villaneueva in the 11th (leaving only Rosenthal in the 'pen, and probably unavailable).  Plawecki reached on an infield single with one out.  Carlos struggled with some command, but ended up stranding two with the tie intact.

Kirk Nieuwenhuis doubled with one out in the 12th, but Carlos worked around it like ain't no thang.

Granderson stretched a single into a double to start off the 13th.  It proved to be a great move.  Plawecki singled to right and drove him in for the first run of the game.  A hit (Tejada), two pop/fly outs, and an intentional walk (Murphy) later, Carlos was able to get Johnny Monell to pop out to end the inning with only one run across.  Mets lead 1-0.

Villaneuva came back out for his fourth inning in the 14th.  He walked Granderson with two outs, but it wasn't as exciting as the prior inning.  He struck out Plawecki to end the inning.  All-in-all, Villaneuva used 77 pitches to get through his 4 innings.  Carlos Martinez warmed up in the bullpen.  Goold made sure to give Bruce Bochy a shout-out for making this possible.

Martinez in the 15th.  He walked Campbell, gave up a hit to Lagares, but got out of the inning with a double play.

Martinez in the 16th.  Gilmartin collected his first major league hit, a bloop fly ball on the left field line.  Carlos followed that up with a walk to Duda.  At that point, the grounds crew came to fix the mound that had taken a 16 inning beating.  I guess it did the trick, Carlos came back and retired the next three batters.

Martinez in the 17th.  Tejada led it off with a single.  Campbell K'd and Lagares popped out.  They intentionally walked Murphy to bring up pinch hitter Jacob deGrom.  deGrom worked a full count and a walk to load the bases, with Duda up.  Duda put up a good effort, fouling off four pitches, but El Gallo got 'im on a changeup to end the inning with the bases loaded.

Martinez in the 18th.  I'm sure there's some clever stat about pitchers pitching in the inning that matches their jersey number, but whatever.  Flores and Granderson knocked back-to-back base hits to get things started.  Plawecki bunted, and Martinez botched the play, trying to do too much and get the guy at third.  That loaded the bases with nobody out.  Tejada put the Mets back up on top, driving a sac fly to deep right field.  The Amazin's got another on a squeeze play off the bat of Campbell.  Campbell was also called safe at first, but that call was overturned for the second out.  He got a pop-up for the third out.  But the damage was done. 3-1 Mets.

Bottom halves -

Jon Niese took quick care of the 1-2-3 batters in the first.

Mark Reynolds' leadoff single in the second was erased by a GIDP from Yadier Molina.  Tommy Pham worked a walk in the inning, as well.

Cooney picked up his second big league hit in the third, but otherwise Niese kept truckin', stingy-style.  His completion of the 4th inning marked his 1000th career inning pitched.

Cooney picked up his third big league hit in the fifth.  It came on the heels of a Bourjos single, so it put runners on the corners with two outs.  Kolten Wong wasn't able to capitalize, ending the inning with a lineout to centerfield.

Reynolds got another hit in the sixth, but Niese again expertly worked around it to match Cooney's 0's on the scoreboard.

Pham thought he had a reach-on-error to start out the seventh, but the call was overturned after review; Duda applied a tag on Tommy as he ran by on his way to first.  Peters Bourjos and Kozma hit some balls hard right at defenders for outs in the inning.

Grichuk got plunked in the knee with two outs in the eighth.  That was Jon Niese's last pitch.  Bobby Parnell came in and retired Jhonny Peralta to end the inning.

Niese's final line: 7 2/3 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K, 100 pitches thrown.

Parnell came back for the ninth.  Reynolds got things going with his third hit of the game, a single to left.  The second inning was relived, and Yadi grounded into a double play.  Pham beat out an infield hit, but was retired to end the inning- to extras!

Jenrry Mejia took care of the three Cards he faced in the 10th, including pinch hitter Matt Holliday, who tried his hand walking to first on a groundout.

Mejia came back out for the 11th.  Grichuk led off the frame with a groundrule double down the right field line.  Peralta got an intentional walk.  Reynolds sent a fly ball to center that was deep enough to advance Grichuk to third with one out, but unfortunately wasn't deep enough to get Peralta to second, and with Yadi coming up, a double play seemed a likely possibility.  Indeed, Yadi sent a slow roller to third, and in spite of the blazing speed of Peralta and Molina, the Mets were able to turn two to end the inning (Yadi's 3rd GIDP!!).  To the 12th!

Hansel Robles for the Mets in the 12th.  The inning featured a walk to Bourjos, but that was it.  Villaneueva hit for himself with the lack of pitchers to turn to.  He should have beat out a hit off the glove of Robles, but he didn't.  To the 13th!

Jeurys Familia, Mets closer in the 13th.  On his second pitch, a 94-m.p.h. two-seamer, Mr. Wong drove the game-tying homer down the right field line.  The homer was of the just-enough variety.  Peralta singled.  Yadi drove a deep single to left.  Peralta made to round third to win it, but was held up.  He almost rounded too far, and barely got back to third safely.  It was all academic; Pham struck out to end the inning (Heyward obviously unavailable).  Game tied 1-1. To the 14th!

Sean Gilmartin for the Mets in the 14th.  I felt good about the game for the first time when Bourjos drew a leadoff walk on four straight, and they showed Jason Heyward grabbing a helmet to bat third in the inning.  Kozma sac-bunted Bourjos along to second.  My optimism went un-rewarded as Heyward and Wong struck out in succession to end the inning.  To the 15th!

Gilmartin again.  Grichuk and Peralta K'd, Reynolds grounded out.  To the 16th!

Gilmartin again.  Yadi drove a single to center, and Bourjos was intentionally walked, but the inning ended exactly as you'd expect it would with Kozma and Martinez coming up.  To the 17th!

Carlos Torres in the 17th.  He came out a'swingin'.  He K'd Wong and Grichuk.  Peralta singled but then made an ass of himself getting caught trying to steal second base.  He was out by a healthy margin.  To the 18th!

Carlos Torres came in to try to wrap up the win after being given a lead.  Reynolds promptly flew out.  It took Molina a few more pitches, but he did the same.  Tommy Pham ended the game with a swinging strikeout.  Mets win 3-1.

Final Notes -

  • There were a whole lot of baserunners in this game- 18 for the Cardinal and 29 for the Mets!

  • Mets left 25 on base.  But there were 3 that they didn't.

  • Cooney, Villaneueva, and Martinez threw 251 pitches between the three of them.

  • 40 players appeared in this game.

  • The starters were good today.

  • Yadi's 3 GIDPs was good enough to earn him the worst performance of the day according to Fangraphs WPA, beating out Kozma's 0-for-6 effort.  Only Bourjos, Wong, and Cooney were positive contributors on the offensive side.

  • This one was dragging well before extras for me.

  • Fangraphs
  • Gamenotes: Mets | Cardinals

Looking ahead -

Tuesday, Carlos Martinez Michael Wacha leads the birds on an inter-league adventure in Chicago.  They'll take on Carlos Rodon and the White Sox.  7:10 CT Gametime.  The poor Mets do not have an offday- they travel to D.C. to take on the Nats tomorrow.

More From Viva El Birdos