Card... sparks?
Colleen Sullivan looks back at the Mets' wild trip to St. Louis last month and forward to this week's four-game set against the Redbirds in Flushing
Trivia question: Cardinals shortstop Paul DeJong got sent to the minors after following last year’s .197/.284/.390 performance with a .130/.209/.208 line in 86 plate appearances to open the season. That means DeJong won’t be around this week to do his usual Met-killing routine, although after going 1-for-9 with four strikeouts against the Amazins in St. Louis last month, maybe DeJong is just done at this level
DeJong has hit .327/.354/.710 in 27 lifetime games against the Mets, with 10 of the 97 home runs he’s hit in his career… of 564 games. Only one player has hit more home runs against the Mets in fewer games against them than DeJong. Can you name him, and for a bonus, can you name the active player who has 11 homers in 27 games against the Mets?
Behind Enemy (Base)Lines: St. Louis Cardinals
By Colleen Sullivan
The Cardinals are rolling into Queens for a four-game set, just three weeks since the Mets’ dramatic and emotionally charged series in St. Louis that involved, well, let’s get to it…
What happened last time?
The opening game of the series had a crazy finish, to say the least. The Mets were down to their final strike, down by two runs, when Mark Cahna grounded to third. Nolan Arenado, a nine-time Gold Glove winner, fielded the ball cleanly and made an off-balance throw. It was called an infield hit somehow, plus an error to Eduardo Escobar to score from second, keeping the Mets alive. A double from Jeff McNeil left two on for Dominic Smith, pinch-hitting for Tomás Nido. This is where things get weird again.
Smith hit a one-hopper that was grabbed by Paul Goldschmidt behind the bag. Smith beat closer Giovanny Gallegos to first with a headfirst dive. Pinch-runner Travis Jankowski came in from third to tie the game, and, McNeil hustled around all the way from second with Squirrel Power™ sliding home to give the Mets a 3-2 lead. T.J. McFarland came out of the St. Louis bullpen and served up a two-run dong to Brandon Nimmo, completing the first crazy comeback of the season for the Mets.
The next night, Chris Bassitt was lights out through six innings of a 3-0 win, allowing only two hits. Drew Smith, Adam Ottavino, and Edwin Díaz tossed an inning apiece to close things out. This was also the game where Bassitt called out MLB for the changing of baseballs and not caring about batters getting hit, after the Mets were plunked three times.
The final game of the series was why this rematch has a bit more intrigue. Reliever Yoan López had a pitch go very off-course and buzz by Arenado, leading to a bench-clearing shoving match and Arenado getting run for “aggressively gesturing.”
J.D. Davis was hit in the foot, one of the league-leading 25 times the Mets have been plunked in a month and a half. The appearance of retaliation eventually led to Buck Showalter being suspended for a game and Lopez getting three (which he’ll have to serve when and if he’s called back up from Triple-A, and may work against him getting that return to the majors quickly). Hilariously, Arenado’s tough-guy act got the seal of approval from first-year St. Louis manager Oliver Marmol, as it is the Cardinal Way to be a Giant Baby. Pete Alonso got taken down from behind by Cards first base coach Stubby Clapp, who with a name like that, should be coaching football.
How are they doing?
The Cards are 19-15, second in the NL Central, and 2.5 back from the Brewers – currently occupying the National League’s third wild-card spot, early though it is to consider that. In case you were thinking baseball makes sense, St. Louis’ last homestand was the Cardinals losing two out of three to the Orioles, then taking two of three from the Giants, including a 15-6 stomping on Sunday afternoon (it was even more lopsided before Albert Pujols pitched and gave up four runs in an inning).
Arenado and Goldschmidt are leading the St. Louis offense, as expected, each with a .312 average – Arenado leads the way with eight homers and a .600 slugging percentage, Goldschmidt owns a .394 on-base percentage. Collectively, the Cards are leading the NL in stolen bases (29) and strikeout rate (19.7%). Adam Wainwright is still there, and having a real good season at 40, but the Mets won’t see their longtime nemesis after he pitched on Sunday.
Pitchers: We all have them
Monday was going to be Miles Mikolas against Tylor Megill before bicep tendinitis put the Big Drip on the injured list, and likely explained the eight runs he gave up in his last start. The Mets will instead turn to Trevor Williams (0-2, 5.73) and a parade to follow out of the bullpen.
Seeing a bunch of St. Louis relievers is less likely with Mikolas pitching, as the righty has gone at least seven innings in three of his last four starts, beginning with that outing against the Mets – he’s 2-1 with a 1.33 ERA and 18 strikeouts over 27 innings in that stretch. Mikolas also carries the nickname of “Lizard King”, resulting from an incident during the minor leagues that involved him eating a (live) lizard.
Tuesday is Steven Matz vs. Taijuan Walker. Matz has a 3-3 record and 6.40 ERA over 32.1 innings, and has given up six runs on 10 hits in 9.2 innings in a pair of career starts against his former team, including last month’s outing. The lefty’s last start against the Orioles was his second straight loss since seeming to get his season on track with six scoreless frames against the Royals – against Baltimore, Matz did last 6.2 innings, but gave up three runs on seven hits, including a pair of homers. It lowered his ERA from 7.01 to 6.40. Walker, meanwhile,blanked the Nationals in his last outing, the only time in his four starts that the righthander didn’t face the Phillies.
Wednesday should see a lot of strikeouts, with Scherzer going up against Jordan HIcks, the St. Louis flamethrower who has moved from the bullpen to the rotation with limited success. Hicks has issued 12 walks in 21.2 innings, mitigating the effect of his 21 punchouts, and he’s 0-3 with a 5.09 ERA as a starter, including the April 26 loss to the Mets when he couldn’t get an out in the third inning. Scherzer has gone at least six innings in all but one of his seven starts as a Met, although they’ve lost his last two outings.
For the matinee finale on Thursday, it’s scheduled to be Dakota Hudson against Bassitt, the first time the Mets have seen the 2016 first-round pick from Mississippi State since 2019, as he only made 10 appearances over the past two years due to Tommy John surgery. In only 37 combined plate appearances by current Mets against Hudson (including a walk to Jacob deGrom), Alonso, Davis, and Marte all have homers, and Canha went 2-for-2 against him in a game three years ago, a fact that either is about to become even more impressive or even more meaningless than a sample size of two at-bats already is.
Trivia answer: The Mets did their darndest to avoid pitching to Mark McGwire when he was with the Cardinals, walking him 17 times in 111 plate appearances, but they could not avoid Big Mac socking 13 dingers against them in 26 career games. Meanwhile, Cody Bellinger has gone deep 11 times against the Mets in his 27 games against them, surely with more to come.
If 27 seems like an arbitrary number of games, it is. It just happens that it’s the number of games DeJong has played against the Mets, and that it’s one more than McGwire’s total and equal to where Bellinger currently sits.
So, here’s the list of most homers against the Mets, via Stathead, by maximum number of games played against them, this time with round numbers… (* - active)
20 games: Aaron Judge* (7 HR, 17 G)
30 games: McGwire (13 HR, 26 G)
40 games: Kyle Schwarber* (16 HR, 39 G)
50 games: Schwarber
60 games: Schwarber and Anthony Rizzo* (16 HR, 59 G)
70 games: Kevin Mitchell (18 HR, 70 G)
80 games: Dave Kingman (23 HR, 75 G) and Albert Pujols (23 HR, 77 G)
90 games: Kingman, Pujols, and Preston Wilson (23 HR, 86 G)
100 games: Lee May (28 HR, 98 G)
110 games: May and Sammy Sosa (28 HR, 101 G)
120 games: Giancarlo Stanton* (37 HR, 119 G)
130 games: Stanton
140 games: Stanton
150 games: Willie Mays (39 HR, 146 games)
160 games: Mays
170 games: Pat Burrell (42 HR, 162 games)
180 games: Ryan Howard (48 HR, 177 games)
190 games: Howard
200 games: Howard and Willie McCovey (48 HR, 192 games)
210 games: Howard and McCovey
220 games: Howard and McCovey
230 games: Howard and McCovey
240 games: Howard and McCovey
250 games: Willie Stargell (60 HR, 249 G – all-time HR record vs. Mets)
Chipper Jones hit 49 homers in 245 games against the Mets and doesn’t have any of these records. Tough beans, Larry!