The Mets defeated the Cardinals by a score of 9-1 this afternoon at Shea. Johan Santana got his 9th win of the year, and Kyle Lohse suffered his first loss since May 9. For a full recap, head to Yahoo! Sports.

Santana was brilliant. He threw his first complete game as a Met, allowing one run on six hits. He also struck out five Cardinal batters. Speaking of Santana, he also drove in his first run as a Met in the 8th, on an rbi single to drive in Fernando Tatis.

The Mets got to Lohse early, when Carlos Delgado hit a sac fly to drive in Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran hit an rbi single to drive in Endy Chavez in the third.

In the fifth, David Wright crushed a first pitch fastball from Lohse into the bleachers for his 20th homer of the year.

The Mets broke the game wide open in the 6th, when Tatis and Ramon Castro both hit two run homers, their 7th and 6th homers respectively on the year.

The Mets travel to Florida for a crucial three game set against the Marlins starting tomorrow. Ricky Nolasco will face John Maine.

The Mets, weather permitting, look to take the rubber game of their three game set with the Cardinals this afternoon at Shea. Johan Santana will face off against Kyle Lohse. Gametime is slated for 1:10 EST and can be seen on CW11 (again, sorry Dan).

Keys to the Game:

• Gotta Bounce Back: The Mets dropped a tough 10-8 decision last night against the Cards, after coming back twice from three run deficits, only to lose the game. I know this team has showed some resilience before, but today is a huge game. It will help us go off on the right foot on our way to Florida to face the Fish.
• Don’t Blow A Johan Win: Whatever it might be, a Billy Wagner blown save, or a Duaner Sanchez implosion, we have cost Santana a few wins in the 9th inning. Johan is our ace, and we need to win most of his starts if we want October baseball in Flushing.

For a lineup, head to Adam Rubin’s blog for the New York Daily News

As always, to chat during the game head to The Hot Foot Bleachers.

The Cardinals defeated the Mets by a score of 10-8 this evening in 14 innings. Brad Thompson got the win for the Cards and Aaron Heilman took the loss for the Mets. The game lasted over five hours and featured both teams going ahead back and forth.

Brandon Knight was OK in his first major league start, allowing four runs (all in the first inning) in five innings.

Jose Reyes and Endy Chavez scored runs in the bottom of the 1st to cut the lead to 4-2.

Carlos Delgado went deep twice, one a solo shot and the other of the two run variety.  Reyes also hit his 12th of the year, a solo shot.

The bullpen was shaky again, as Carlos Muniz and Joe Smith combined to allow four runs in the 6th inning.

With the Mets down 8-7 in the 9th, Fernando Tatis came up with another big hit for the Mets. He led off the frame with a solo shot off Cardinal closer Ryan Franklin that just cleared CF Rick Ankiel’s glove. Shea was rockin.

The game stayed tied until the top of the 14th, but who other than Albert Pujols smashed a laser two run homer into the left field bleachers off Heilman to put the Cards up 10-8 for good.

Speaking of Heilman, don’t kill the guy, he was the last man in the pen from the 11th inning on, and pitched well and gave the Mets numerous opportunities to win this game.

Overall, tough loss, have to get back at it tomorrow with Johan Santana facing Kyle Lohse.

Also of note, Braden Looper pinch hit and was greeted with a bunch of boos after he was announced.

Fresh off their series win against the Phillies, the Mets welcome the Cardinals into town for a three game set over the weekend. The first game will feature Mike Pelfrey going against rookie Mitch Boggs. Gametime is slated for 7:10 EST and can be seen on SNY and heard on WFAN.

Keys to the Game:

• Don’t Let Up: The Mets now have a one game on the Phillies, and in order to stay there they will need to keep the pedal to the metal. We all know what happened last year if you take a team for granted, and the Phillies have already felt that this year, losing a 7.5 game lead. If we want to win this division, we are going to need to keep playing crisp, smart baseball.
• Keep it Going Pelf: Last Sunday, Pelfrey threw what can be considered his worst start in months. Pelfrey allowed five runs, on three home runs. His fastball wasn’t moving, and yet he still gutted it out and went seven strong innings, resting the bullpen. Pelfrey has doing alot of things right lately, keep it going.
• Need Relievers to Get Going: Relievers Pedro Feliciano and Duaner Sanchez haven’t pitched since Tuesday’s meltdown. Im guessing Jerry Manuel will try to work them into tonight’s game, as we will need both their arms going down the stretch if we want to be successful.
• Beat Up Boggs: Last time we faced the rookie Boggs, we hit him for 10 runs. If we can get that kind of production tonight, we should be in good shape.

As always, to chat during the game head to The Hot Foot Bleachers.

For a lineup, head to John Delcos’s blog for the Journal News.

No implosion tonight. The Mets defeated the Cardinals by a score of 11-1 to split the four game set. Mike Pelfrey got his 6th win of the year, going seven strong innings, allowing only 1 run. The Mets are 6-1 in Pelfrey’s last 7 starts. Mitchell Boggs went six innings, allowing 11 runs. I feel for you Mitchell.

The Mets scored most of their early inning runs on bloop hits, errors, and broken bat hits, but that all changed when Jose Reyes drove in three on a triple, and tied Mookie Wilson for the team’s all time leaders for triples. Carlos Delgado took Boggs deep to top off the scoring for the night.

The bullpen bounced back as well, as Scott Schoeneweis and Joe Smith each went a scoreless inning each.

Tomorrow the Mets begin a huge four game set versus the Phillies. Johan Santana will take the mound opposite J.A. Happ, making his 2nd major league start.

The Mets play the 2nd game of their four game series tonight versus the Cardinals. Gametime is slated for 8:15 EST. The pitchers for tonight’s game will be Tony Armas Jr. (NR) for the Mets and right hander Todd Wellemeyer (7-2) for the Cardinals.

KEY to the Game:

• Score runs, Pitch Well: The time has come for this team to stop with the excuses and start winning some ballgames. The lineup has to start producing if this team even wants to sniff the postseason. I can’t bash the pitching, as it has more than done it’s part this year. For the first time all year i turned off the Mets after they went down 3-0, I just don’t have confidence in them right now, and I’m sure most of you agree. Let’s hope they start playing some enthusiastic, and exciting Mets baseball.

For a lineup, head to John Delcos’s LohudMetsblog. Church and Delgado are flipped, and Ramon Castro is catching. It’s looking more and more like Castro and Schneider platoon as begun, and rightfully so. Schneider can’t hit a beachball right now and Castro homered in his last start.

As always, head to The Hot Foot Bleachers to chat during the game.

The Mets lost to the Cardinals by a score of 6-5 this afternoon in Jupiter. Mike Pelfrey pitched for the Mets, scattering 6 hits over 4.2 innings, allowing 2 runs(1 earned). For a recap of the game, head on over to MLB.com.

A few notes..

• Jose Reyes went 2-3, raising his spring average to .273
• Carlos Delgado went 0-3, and is now hitting .071 this spring.
• Pedro Feliciano allowed 1 unearned run and was credited with a blown save. His spring era is still 0.00 Jorge Sosa gave up 1 run on 2 hits in 2 innings of work. He threw a wild pitch in the 9th to allow the tying run to score, with the Mets one strike away from victory.
• Finally, Luis Castillo expects to play Saturday in his return from offseason knee surgery.

John Maine took the hill for his first start of spring training. It didn’t last long and it didn’t look too pretty, either. Maine lasted 1 2/3, allowing three runs on four hits, while striking out two.

Maine, as quoted by Lisa Kennelly of the Newark Star-Ledger:

“I felt strong, maybe a little too strong.”

Maine added that his goal in the outing was to get consistent with his breaking pitches. He also threw a wild pitch on a change up, which he described as “I choked it, big time.” It allowed the Cards third baseman Troy Glaus to score from third.

I don’t get worked up over the first few spring starts for pitchers. They are still getting back into it. Sure, there will be some that may look at this and be concerned. However, I read most of the write-ups of Maine’s rough second inning. The hits were a couple bloops and a chopper. He did throw the aforementioned wild pitch, as well.

His first inning was a 1-2-3 effort, though. Baby steps, folks…

A warrant has been issued for Scott Speizio of the Cardinals, stemming from his vehicular accident last December. It includes but isn’t limited to DUI and hit and run. In response he has been released from the Cardinals. Speizio admitted last season to having a problem with controlled substances.

Former Single A batboy Cameron Maybin is currently favored to be the starting CF for the Marlins, according to Steve Wine of the AP. If that falls through, the team will most likely see who’s available at the local Little League, and scout some of the prominent sandlots of Miami.

ESPN is reporting the Cubs may look into selling naming writes for Wrigley Field, a move to upset baseball purists. Wrigley is considered to be one of the games great traditions, along with the Cubs losing.