Cardinals crush Mets with homer power

9. 33. Final. 0. 3

Homer power helps Cardinals crush New York Mets

Once again, the St. Louis Cardinals can do no worse than tie another series.

The Cardinals got to Bartolo Colon early and often and denied the New York Mets standout his seventh win of the season, and St. Louis scored a 9-0 shutout Wednesday at Citi Field.

Three players came through that have been mired in mini-slumps for the Cardinals.

Let’s start with Carlos Martinez. The pitcher has endured some rough luck in recent starts, but this time out everything came together. Martinez allowed just four hits and struck out five to run his record to 4-2 overall and lower the ERA to 4.08.

Then there was Jason Heyward and Matt Adams.

Both players hit home runs on Wednesday and improved their batting averages to .250 overall. They still have the lowest averages among the team regulars, but a .250 mark beats an average below the Mendoza line.

More from Redbird Rants

What was most encouraging was how the Cardinals got to Colon in a hurry. St. Louis chased Colon after 4-1/3 innings and eight earned runs on 11 hits. This was easily Colon’s worst outing of the season, and it came from a pitcher that has had ice water in his veins for quite some time.

The Cardinals improved to 27-13 overall and kept a firm grip on first place in the National League Central. They are five games up on the Chicago Cubs, but when this story was written the Cubs’ game with the San Diego Padres had not gone final.

Up next

The Cardinals finish the series with a Thursday afternoon affair at Citi, with a 1:10 p.m. start time.

This is a big game for St. Louis because it marks the season debut of Jaime Garcia, who has not started a game since June of last year.

Garcia faces Jacob deGrom, who owns a 3.21 ERA and 4-4 record.

Next: Why Cardinals' Kolten Wong deserves to be an All-Star

Home/St Louis Cardinals News