Mets 10 – Cardinals 8
After their games last night, Todd Helton had hit 12 homers. All-Star MVP Michael Young had also hit 12. Derek Jeter had hit 10.
Beating all of them is Jose Reyes.
Reyes’ home-run total climbed higher last night, the Met shortstop smashing his 15th of the season.
Last night in the third inning of the Mets’ 10-8 win over the Cardinals at Shea, Reyes drove a three-run shot to left. He had three hits and the three RBIs, adding two runs scored, two stolen bases and a walk.
The Mets, meanwhile, almost blew a 10-2 lead after four frames, as the Cardinals cut the advantage to 10-8 in the eighth. But the Mets held on, have won six straight games and will try to sweep the Cardinals tonight.
Reyes, who had a three-homer night in Philly last week, has more homers this season than his previous three years combined (14 in 283 games). He admitted he was “surprised a little bit” at his homer total this season, explaining that, “The most home runs I hit was last year, eight.” Actually, it was seven.
Chris Woodward, meanwhile, said, “I can see him hitting 30 home runs” down the road and “maybe even more.”
Woodward, Reyes’ middle-infield partner, also had a big night. Playing second base for the fifth straight game with Jose Valentin out with a strained right hamstring, Woodward had two hits, including a three-run first-inning double.
It was alarming, however, that for the second straight night – against a playoff team – a Met starter who could potentially be pitching in an NLDS game did not have a good game. On Tuesday, John Maine gave up seven runs in five innings. Last night, Steve Trachsel gave up six in five frames.
Manager Willie Randolph said he wasn’t watching more critically, saying, “Things could change in a month and a half. So you like to see them pitch well, but that can always change.”
Trachsel garnered his 13th win of the season, which is a team high. But the righty didn’t deliver a strong performance, and he a did a particularly bad job in the third inning.
With runners on first and second, two outs and the Mets up 4-0, Chris Duncan was at the plate and Albert Pujols was on deck. Inexcusably, Trachsel walked Duncan.
Rick Peterson came out to the mound before Pujols’ at-bat, and the pitching coach probably should have told Trachsel how poor a move he had just made. Pujols then lined a two-run single to center.
“I’m more upset with the fifth and sixth innings and not going any further in the game,” Trachsel said. “That kind of lead, you’ve got to do that.”
The Mets scored three more runs in the third and three runs again in the fourth, as by the end of the latter, everyone in the lineup other than Trachsel had reached base. Trachsel, however, gave up Jose Vizcaino’s two-run homer in the fifth and allowed back-to-back solo homers to Scott Rolen and Preston Wilson in the sixth. His ERA is 5.00.
