St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Michael Wacha delivers a pitch to the New York Mets in the second inning at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on June 17, 2014. UPI/Bill Greenblatt
Cardinals starter Michael Wacha (5-5) gave up a run and five hits in six innings, but frustrated the slumping Mets by striking out Daniel Murphy with runners on second and third in the fifth to keep the game knotted at 1-1. Then Wacha struck out Ruben Tejada with two on to end the sixth when the Cardinals led 3-1. St. Louis won their fifth straight in a 5-2 final at Busch Stadium.
Yadier Molina homered in the second and David Wright homered in the fourth to make it a 1-1 game. In the bottom of the fifth, Jon Jay tripled, scoring Daniel Descalso and scored on Matt Holliday’s double off Mets’ starter Jonathan Niese. The Cardinals tacked on two more in the sixth on singles by Kolten Wong and Peter Bourjas. Lucas Duda homered off Jason Motte in the ninth for the Mets, who have lost 11 of 14.
Meanwhile the Cardinals continue to roll. This fifth win in a row is a season high and they are also a season’s best seven games above .500. The Cardinals are enjoying this run through the bottom of the barrel in the NL East as they go for the sweep over New York on Wednesday afternoon. After that, fourth place Philadelphia comes in for four games.
The Cardinals still remain 3.5 games behind Milwaukee.
Michael Wacha on the winning streak and his outing.
