It was only a matter of time before frustrations boiled over for a Mets team that had seen 19 batters hit by pitches over their first 20 games — and the benches finally cleared in St. Louis to steal the focus from a Cardinals 10-5 victory on Wednesday afternoon.
JD Davis became the fourth Mets batter over the last two games — including one that saw Pete Alonso get beaned in the head on Tuesday night — to get hit by a pitch, forcing him to leave the game after injuring his ankle in the eighth inning.
In the next half-inning, New York reliever Yoan Lopez buzzed a high fastball near the head of Cardinals star Nolan Arenado, who had three RBI in the St. Louis win. While Mets (14-6) heads remained cool after being used as target practice over the first three weeks of the season, Arenado’s wild gesticulating and shouting toward the reliever sparked a benches-clearing scuffle that resulted in the third baseman being ejected from the game.
THE BENCHES HAVE CLEARED 🗣️
Nolan Arenado and the Cardinals were not happy after this pitch almost hit him 🥊
(via @SNYtv)pic.twitter.com/umPm8AsxBh
— Yahoo Sports MLB (@MLByahoosports) April 27, 2022
“No [it wasn’t intentional],” Mets manager Buck Showalter said after the game. “You would be putting words in my mouth that it was intentional. It wasn’t.
“I’ll let [the Cardinals] handle their players. I know our player got hit in the head in the first place.”
The Mets’ three-game winning streak was snapped after Carlos Carrasco was tagged for seven earned runs in just 3.2 innings of work, undone by a fourth inning that saw the Cardinals plate five runs and overturn a New York 4-1 lead.
After falling behind 1-0 in the first, the Mets provided a crooked, quick response while continuing to come up with timely hits — scoring four two-out runs in the second.
Pete Alonso and Eduardo Escobar led off the frame with singles before former Met Steven Matz retired the following two. But Luis Guillorme’s infield single loaded the bases before Tomas Nido ripped a two-run double to give the Mets the lead.
Brandon Nimmo followed Nido with another double — shortly after taking a pitch high and tight from Matz — to plate another two to give New York a 4-1 lead.
Carrasco would give it all back, though, surrendering two in the third on a Nolan Arenado single before Tommy Edman tied it up in the fourth with a double.
The Cardinals went ahead later in the inning a wild pitch and an infield single by Corey Dickerson drove Carrasco out of the game. Reliever Sean Reid-Foley was greeted rudely by Dylan Carlson, who rocked a two-run-scoring triple to put St. Louis up 8-4 after five.
New York ran themselves out of an early comeback attempt in the sixth when both Canha and Guillorme were thrown out on the basepaths trying to stretch a single and double respectively to an extra base. Arenado made them pay by picking up his third RBI in the sixth with a ground-rule double off Reid-Foley to drive the reliever from the game.
Francisco Lindor snapped an 0-for-15 skid with an RBI double in the seventh, scoring Starling Marte, to bring the Mets within four but it was wiped out by a Paul Goldschmidt RBI single in the bottom of the seventh.
