The Cardinals threatened again in the seventh against former Cardinal Dominic Leone, but once St. Megill’s final line: 6 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K (90 pitches) 7th Inning Mikolas final line: 6 IP, 8 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, 1 K (87 pitches) Mikolas plunked Canha with a curveball that didn’t break with two outs, but Narvaez flew out to end the inning, with New York up 6-1. After falling behind Daniel Vogelbach 3-1, Mikolas threw a 92 mph cream puff down the middle, and the fridge promptly turned on it and deposited it 401 feet into the upper level of right field seats for a solo homer. Mikolas got two quick outs in the sixth, but ran into a big problem with two outs. Goldschmidt flew out to the warning track in right field, Gorman struck out swinging for the second consecutive at bat, and Arenado lined out to Marte in right field. 6th Inningīrendan Donovan led off the sixth with a single, but as has been the case too often lately, he never moved off first base. Marte and McNeil both flew out, and Lindor was called out on strikes. Mikolas pitched a scoreless fifth on 10 pitches. Instead, they recorded three outs without putting the ball in play: The Cardinals did not advance those runners at all the rest of the inning. With Walker on second and nobody out, Carlson was hit in the ankle by a fastball from Megill. The Cardinals went out like a lamb, however - as they are prone to doing as soon as runners get into scoring position.

McNeil also tagged up from first to second on the play. Instead, he wacked a deep fly ball to left field for a sac fly, making it 4-0 Mets. The star shortstop didn’t ground into a double play this time. Marte and McNeil led off the bottom of the third with back-to-back base knocks, putting runners on the corners with nobody out for Lindor. Tommy Edman couldn’t contribute with a popout to Lindor at short, and Donovan struck out swinging for out number three. Dylan Carlson struck out after an eight-pitch battle, followed by a one-out single to left field by DeJong. The Cardinals got a hit in the third inning, although they were not forunate enough to score and cut into the Mets’ lead. Canha flew out to shallow center field, Narvaez grounded out to second base, and Nimmo flew out to Carlson in right field. The Mets were retired in order as well in the bottom half of the inning, although Mikolas did it on just seven pitches. Megill threw 14 pitches in the second inning. Groundouts from Arenado and Walker were sandwiched around a Willson Contreras strikeout. More weak contact from the Cardinals in the second, as they were retired 1-2-3. He converted, pulling a ball down the first base line into right field for a two-run double to make it 2-0 Mets. This set up rookie third baseman Brett Baty with two runners in scoring position and two outs. Lindor stepped in and hit a soft grounder back to Mikolas, who tossed home, followed by a throw from Contreras down to first for a 1-2-3 double play. The Mets loaded the bases with no outs courtesy of a Brandon Nimmo walk and base hits from Starling Marte and Jeff McNeil. Just like in each of his last two starts, Mikolas gave up multiple runs early to put the Cardinals in a hole. Brendan Donovan and Paul Goldschmidt both grounded out to second base, and Gorman popped out on the infield. Lot of soft contact for the Redbirds in the top of the first. Here’s how loss number 43 went down, friends: It might be time to slide Edman back to shortstop (you know, the position they said he’d play every day, even when DeJong came back), move Calrson back into center, slide Walker back to right field, Donovan to left, and give Luken Baker a longer look at DH. The Cardinals rode the hot hand his first few weeks back, but those days are over. I’m also curious why Paul DeJong is still in the lineup every day. Contreras hit the ball hard in three of his four at bats, so that’s a marked improvement.

Here are the starting lineups for both squads tonight: Uncle Stevie’s $359-million dollar payroll has produced a sub-.500 record this season, and the Cardinals aren’t even going to see the combo of Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander this weekend. After another loss Wednesday that might’ve been the worst of the season (I’m pretty numb to it at this point), the Cardinals hopped a flight to Gotham to take on another dissapointing team, the New York Mets.

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