Game of the Week: May 20: STL @ NYM

[Commissioner Erick]

St. Louis Cardinals (19-19) @ New York Mets (19-19)


STL: Mike Leake (2-3, 3.80)
NYM: Robert Gsellman (1-4, 5.23)


At 19-19, the New York Mets have been ravaged by injuries and are a disappointing 6.5 games out of the NL East lead. At 19-19, the St. Louis Cardinals are watching Matt Carpenter hit like a superstar as they sit tied for the second wild card in the NL.

The New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals square off with identical records for The Game of the Week despite the sentiments around the teams feeling completely different.

Matt Carpenter will lead St. Louis into New York as one of the hottest players in baseball. He leads the league in average and on-base percentage, is second in slugging, WAR, hits, walks, and he's sixth in home runs. After hitting a disappointing .247 last season, he's shattering his previous totals in the early going.

As a result, the Cardinals are tied for the league lead in home runs, though it hasn't been Carpenter alone behind the surge. Randal Grichuk continues to sell out for power, but he already has nine thus far. Stephen Piscotty has put aside the various setbacks of 2018, and a few annoying bouts of dehydration in the offseason to club nine home runs himself.

It didn't seem like the Cardinals would have the offensive upside to produce this kind of power, but Carpenter has led the way. With Dexter Fowler and Kolten Wong healing it, it could be a very formidable lineup.

The Cardinals will face a Mets team that, if the New York press is to be believed, is falling apart. However, after a demoralizing sweep at home to the hands of the Nationals, New York has rebounded. It won series against the Phillies and Brewers, took a two game set versus the Orioles, and split four with the Cubs. The Mets are 8-4 in their last 12, and right in the thick of the playoff hunt.

Some of the panic comes with the fact that the Mets superstar Nate Syndergaard is on the shelf for the year. Last season's Cy Young Award winner, Thor won't pitch again until 2020. With Zach Wheeler out and Steven Matz in Tampa Bay, three-fifths of the young, exciting dominant staff from 2017 in unavailable.

However, the Mets are still exceptionally deep. Tonight's starter Robert Gsellman is a testament to that. A 14-game winner last year, Gsellman kept the ball on the ground and rode a low walk rate to a solid season. This year, the home runs are elevated, though five came against the Cubs and Yankees, two of the toughest lineups he'll face. However, the strikeout rate is non-existent and the walk rate has jumped. It's still too early to draw conclusions, but teams are spitting on his pitches more, forcing him to either walk hitters or come back with juicy pitches for hitters to drive.

Offensively, the Mets are getting a good bounce back year from Michael Conforto. After a disappointing 2018, he's back to clubbing the ball and he already is up to 10 doubles and nine home runs. Yoenis Cespedes has 11 home runs and a .250 average, while Neil Walker is ripping the ball and spending time on the disabled list. In short, the high-profile hitters are playing as performed.

The supporting pieces, however, have been dreadful. David Wright hit .091 last week, while Nick Senzel has just three RBI in 30 games. Ahmed Rosario hasn't homered yet, while Dominic Smith has just two. The Mets simply aren't getting any power from supporting players, and it's doing them in about as much as their pitching injuries.

Whether or not Gsellman can quell the middle of the Cardinals power bats, and whether or not New York gets enough offense from supporting characters may be the keys to the game. The Mets will be looking for length from Gsellman—Seth Lugo only got four outs yesterday forcing three position players to work in a 26-7 loss. It's a tired pen that could use a breather.


Questions for the GMs:


For John Kratz, Jedd Gyorko continues to produce as a power hitter off the bench. Will you try to get at bats for him today considering Gsellman's homer issues this season?

Eliezer Alvarez has an OPS of .622 as your team's designated hitter. Is that something you can live with consdering your playoff aspirations?

Your team has committed the most errors in the NL. Considering tonight's starter, Mike Leake, doesn't struck many people out, will you try to field a more defensive-oriented lineup tonight?

For Steve Cox, after a few seasons of having a terrific bullpen, the unit is struggling this year. Is it anything to be concerned with or just an early blip?

After breaking his elbow last year, Nick Senzel hasn't hit for any kind of authority this season. Are you worried the elbow injury has damaged him?

You've made some moves this year, shipping out Brandon Nimmo, bringing in Cory Spangenberg. How have you tried to reshape the roster with some of the challenges your team has faced this year?

[Commissioner Erick]

Mets 7 - Cardinals 6 (14)


WP: J. Smoker (3-0)
LP: C. Gearrin (1-1)


Staring at another despondent loss in the face, it would have been easy for the Mets to go down quietly in the fourteenth inning staring at a 6-2 deficit.

Instead the Mets turned to a man fresh off the disabled list to get their 2019 bandaged up.

Neil Walker, fresh off the disabled list, hit a game-tying home run in the eleventh inning, and a game-winning walk-off single later as the New York Mets scored five times in the fourteenth inning to clip the St. Louis Cardinals 7-6.

The game turned into a war of attrition after excellent pitching for 13 innings. Both Mike Leake and Robert Gsellman allowed only one run, Leake working 7 innings, Gsellman going 6.1. Neftali Feliz stayed on for 4.2 innings, allowing just one run, while the Mets got 3.1 sterling relief innings from the combination of Fernando Salas, Hansel Robles, and Daniel Columbe.

Sean Gilmartin came aboard in the tenth and allowed a solo home run to Randal Grichuk in the eleventh. Until the fourteenth, that's all he'd allow. Feliz meanwhile was pristine except for the game-tying two-out home run to Walker in the bottom of the eleventh.

As a result of the excellent work done by the starters, the score was knotted 2-2 until the fourteenth.

By that point Gilmartin had already worked 3.1 innings, but with Addison Reed stretched the night before, and Jeruys Familia inexplicably never called upon, it was up to Gilmartin to make it through another inning. Normally a starter, Gilmartin had only thrown 38 pitches to that point so he had some arm strength saved up in reserve.

The Cardinals, however, had saved up all their offense in reserve, only to use it in the fourteenth. Edmundo Sosa led off with a hit, swinging on the first pitch, before Randal Grichuk dunked a fly ball into right field. With men on the corners, Gilmartin uncorked a wild pitch to plate Sosa with the go-ahead run. With first base open, he walked maybe the hottest hitter on the earth in Matt Carpenter, before Carpenter broke up a potential double play on a fielder's choice to put men on the corners.

At no point did anybody come out to pull Gilmartin.

Yonder Alonso attacked, grounding the first pitch the other way for an RBI single to make it 4-2 St. Louis. Rangel Ravelo followed suit, taking the first pitch and grounding it into center for an RBI hit to make it 5-2 St. Louis. Jedd Gyorko took a pitch and missed another before he too had a base hit up the middle to plate a run. Carson Kelly fell behind 3-1 before grounding a pitch to center, and what had seen so promising had turned into a nightmare for the Mets.

That's when the most important defensive play of the game was made. Michael Conforto picked up the slowly hit grounder, Ravelo couldn't get to home plate fast enough, and Conforto fired a strike to preserve a run. It seemed like it was merely academic at that point, but it saved a run and ultimately the game.

Gilmartin wasn't exhausted as the Cardinals had done their damage early in the count, but after walking Dexter Fowler, the Mets' manager bot had seen enough. It called upon Josh Smoker, and Smoker smoked Sosa to mercifully end the inning.

Because Feliz had gone so many innings, St. Louis had a lot of options to close the game out. They started with Cory Gearrin who had already worked 1.1 innings after putting out a fire in the twelfth. He began the frame by retiring Ahmed Rosario. For Gearrin, Rosario was his fifth batter faced and his fifth out recorded, so things were looking strong.

Conforto followed with a walk, before Yoenis Cespedes walked to put the tying run on deck. This made it a save situation, and normally the Cardinals would call upon their closer. However, Matt Bowman had worked two innings in an extra-inning win the night before, so the Cardinals kept Gearrin in.

Dominic Smith promptly doubled to the wall bringing in a run.

Nick Senzel followed with the third walk drawn in the inning.

Despite Spangenberg heading to the plate as a lefty, the Cardinals didn't call upon lefty Brett Cecil, and Spangenberg hit an RBI single to center.

By this point, the Mets had crept back to 6-4 with the winning run on base and only one out. By this point, it was clear Gearrin was running on fumes. Gearrin was left in though, walking in a run by firing ball four to Kevin Plawecki, putting the tying run on third. Gearrin followed by walking hoome the tying run on ball four to Khris Davis. Walker didn't wait for ball four, smoothly stroking a ground ball past the drawn in infield to win a much-needed comeback for the Mets, while Cardinals fans could only wonder what their manager bot was thinking.

The Mets improved to a winning record with the victory, and sole possession of the second wild card—not too far off from where they thought they might be this season. The Cardinals fell to 19-20, failing to capitalize on a golden opportunity.


Questions for the GMs:


For John Kratz, what happened there in the fourteenth? Why didn't your manager bot put in another pitcher after Gearrin was struggling?

Mike Leake went 7 innings allowing just a single run despite fanning just three Mets. Talk about his game and the season he's having for you?

Edmund Sosa came in for defensive purposes in the eleventh inning for Paul DeJong. How much better of a defender do you feel Sosa is over DeJong?

For Steve Cox, Neil Walker came back off the disabled list and you wasted no time batting him leadoff. He wasted no time with two huge hits in extra innings. Talk about what Walker provided your team?

Why did your manager bot leave Gilmartin out there for the fourteenth inning?

How important was it for you to see Salas and Robles have the strong outings they did?