Griffin Canning had a stellar start and the bats had a great second inning (don’t worry about the rest of the innings).
The Mets entered today’s series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals having lost two straight games for the first time in 2025. It was a remarkable sign of the team’s overall competency that they’d managed to avoid a losing streak for that long into the season. And tonight, the Mets prolonged their first three-game losing streak of 2025, as they returned home with a 4-1 victory over the Cardinals.
After being scratched from his scheduled start yesterday due to illness, Griffin Canning took the mound tonight against Andre Pallante. The Mets got their scoring started (and finished, as it would turn out) in the bottom of the second inning when Mark Vientos led off the frame with his first homerun of the 2025 season, an opposite field shot off the foul pole. The Amazins were only just getting started, as Starling Marte followed Vientos’s blast with a one-out double and then came around to score two batters later when Brett Baty dunked a bloop into left field. Another single—this one off the bat of Tyrone Taylor—put runners on first and second, and Francisco Lindor then lined a ball into right field to score a third run. Lindor then wisely got caught in a run-down between second and first, all the while directing Taylor to run home from third. He managed to slide home with the fourth run of the inning before Lindor got tagged out near first, and the inning came to a close with the Mets rocking an early 4-0 lead.
The Cardinals did quickly get a run back off Canning, however. Victor Scott II led off the top of the third with a single to center, and the speedy center fielder then stole second base (he was originally ruled out thanks to a terrific throw from Luis Torrens, but replay review overturned the call). Canning recorded the next two outs and was close to getting out of the inning unscathed, but Scott was able to advance to third on a wild pitch, and Brendan Donovan then hit a sharp ground ball to shortstop that Lindor was able to field on a dive but unable to make a play on. The runner on third thus scored, and St. Louis had cut the lead to 4-1.
That, however, would prove to be the only run surrendered by Canning, who ended up having his best start thus far as a Met. Most impressive (and needed, given how much the bullpen was forced to work in yesterday’s game) was the fact that he was able to finish six innings for the first time this year, going past 100 pitches in his final inning of work to do so. Canning’s final line: six innings pitched, three hits, two walks, eight strikeouts, and just the one run. His ERA now stands at 3.43 after four starts, which is certainly as good as the Mets could possibly have expected from him.
Unfortunately, the Amazins also struggled to generate more offense after that four-run second. Like his counterpart, Pallante also managed to make it through six innings despite his rough second frame, and Matt Svanson and John King combined for two scoreless innings out of the St. Louis bullpen. They gave the Cardinals offense a chance to get back into the game despite the early deficit. Fortunately, the Mets’ pitching staff was up to the task of holding them at bay. After Canning made his exit, Reed Garrett came on for the top of the seventh and managed to work around a walk and some very long at-bats to toss a scoreless inning. AJ Minter followed with a 1-2-3 eighth, and Edwin Díaz—following the seemingly required leadoff walk—closed the door in the ninth to secure the victory for the Amazins. All told, Mets pitchers only ended up surrendering three hits—the last one being a bunt single to leadoff the fourth. All told, it was yet another night where a stellar performance from the pitching staff combined with a just good enough offense to pick up a win.
The two teams will be back at it tomorrow with David Peterson facing off against Miles Mikolas.
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Big Mets winner: Griffin Canning, +20.3% WPA
Big Mets loser: Juan Soto, -8.8% WPA
Mets pitchers: +31.2% WPA
Mets hitters: +18.8% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Francisco Lindor two-run scoring single in the second, +11.9% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Brendan Donovan RBI single in the third, -5.1% WPA