Cardinals shut out in Mets series finale

Garcia loses in return as Cards are blanked

Talk about a 180-degree turn from the night before.

As good as the St. Louis Cardinals looked on Wednesday in an impressive shutout of the New York Mets, the Cardinals looked equally as disappointing in Jaime Garcia‘s return to the mound.

To be fair, it wasn’t all on Garcia. The Cardinals mustered just two hits Thursday at Citi Field as the Mets walked away with a 5-0 victory and a split of the four-game series.

Garcia, who hadn’t pitched all season due to shoulder issues, returned and looked decent. He allowed five walks and one homer to the Mets’ Lucas Duda, but overall Garcia was effective through seven innings of work.

The problem was the hitting. When Kolten Wong and Matt Carpenter are the only ones hitting for you, then there is a problem. Part of this was due to the effective touch of Mets standout Jacob deGrom, who struck out 11 batters and improved his overall record to 5-4.

The top five players in the lineup each whiffed twice. That won’t put too many runners on base.

All told, this series was one filled with extremes. The Cardinals won their games in convincing fashion, but the Mets needed extra innings and a shutout to get the job done.

Up next

The big I-70 series begins on Friday when the Cardinals travel to Kauffman Stadium for the first of a three-game series. with the Kansas City Royals.

The first game gets underway at 8:10 p.m. as Lance Lynn (3-3, 2.96 ERA) faces Kansas City’s Chris Young (3-0, 0.94).

Stay with Redbird Rants through the Memorial Day weekend as we offer coverage of one of the biggest early series of the season.