ST. LOUIS — (AP) — Nolan Arenado and Harrison Bader homered, Adam Wainwright hung tough and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the New York Mets 6-5 Monday night for their fifth straight win.
Wainwright (1-3), activated from the COVID-19 list to make the start, fell behind 5-2 in the third inning. But he didn't give up any more runs before leaving with two outs in the sixth, and the bullpen preserved his first win of the season.
Genesis Cabrera and Giovanny Gallegos combined for 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. Alex Reyes worked around a pair of walks in the ninth to earn his eighth save — he has not allowed an earned run in 14 1/3 innings this season.
Joey Lucchesi (0-2) allowed six runs on seven hits in 2 2/3 innings after being recalled from the Mets' alternate training site to make the start. He has not pitched into the fourth inning in any of his three starts this season.
Dominic Smith drove in a run on a groundout and Kevin Pillar hit a two-run homer to put the Mets up in the third.
Arenado answered with a three-run drive in the bottom half to make it 5-all. His fifth home run of the season landed in the left-field bullpen. Paul DeJong and Tyler O’Neill followed with doubles to put St. Louis ahead.
Bader hit a 450-foot home run to the left field bleachers, a solo drive that made it 2-all in the second. He connected a day after hitting his first homer of the season.
Tommy Edman led off the first inning with a triple and scored on Dylan Carlson’s sacrifice fly.
Wainwright hit Tomás Nido in the elbow with the bases loaded to tie it in the second. Two batters later, Jeff McNeil walked to put the Mets up 2-1.
BIG NUMBER
Wainwright reached 1,000 strikeouts at the current Busch Stadium when he fanned Smith in the second inning. Wainwright is the first Cardinals pitcher to have 1,000 strikeouts at a home ballpark and 24th in major league history to accomplish the feat.
STARTERS ACTIVATED
Mets: LHP Daniel Zamora was optioned to the alternate training site to make room for Lucchesi.
Cardinals: OF Austin Dean was optioned to Triple-A Memphis to make room for Wainwright.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Mets: RHP Edwin Díaz said he was feeling better after experiencing back tightness in his outing Sunday night against Philadelphia.
“I went out, I threw, I feel much better,” Díaz said through an interpreter. “I feel like I have more power. I’m able to finish my pitches when I’m throwing so it does look good for tomorrow or the next day.”
Cardinals: C Yadier Molina continues to recover from a strained tendon in his right foot. President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak said Molina will be re-evaluated in the next few days to determine when he can return to baseball activities.
UP NEXT
The Mets send RHP Jacob deGrom (2-2, 0.51 ERA) to the mound. deGrom’s 59 strikeouts are tied with Nolan Ryan for the most all-time through a pitcher’s first five starts. The Cardinals plan to counter with RHP Johan Oviedo (0-0, 2.79 ERA), who needs to be added to the active roster after having been optioned out on April 28.
___
More AP baseball: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
