Beat Me in St. Louis

Cardinals 3 Mets 0 (Busch Stadium, St. Louis, Missouri)

Mets record: 3-2

Mets streak: Lose 1

WP - Andre Pallante (1-0)

LP - Kodai Senga (0-1)

SV- Riley O'Brien (1)

Seat on the Korner: Andre Pallante

We select a Star of the Game and virtually invite him to take his Seat on the Korner — just as Ralph Kiner did on WOR-TV Channel 9 during the early days of the New York Mets.

Continuing the tradition of Rheingold Beer sponsoring Kiner’s Korner, this season every seat is proudly presented by The Main Event Restaurant & Sports Bar.

With locations in Plainview and Farmingdale, The Main Event features 80+ HD TVs, fresh daily seafood, and Black Angus certified steaks—so you never have to choose between great food and the big game.

The Mets were shut out for the first time this season, and five innings of 3-hit ball by Cardinals starter, Andre Pallante is precisely why. The veteran righty wasn't overpowering, and he also didn't need to be. Pallante struck out 3, walked 3, gave up the Mets only 3 hits of the game, all on 88 pitches.

Need to Know

• Mets starting pitcher, Kodai Senga, wasn't at his sharpest, and still pitched well enough to earn a quality start. He had 9 Ks in 6 innings to go along with 3 walks, 4 hits and 2 runs (both earned).

• As effective as Pallante was, the Cardinals bullpen deserved their own "Seat on the Korner" as Gordon Graceffo, Ryne Stanek (yes, that Ryne Stanek), JoJo Romero, and Riley O'Brien combined for 0 hits, 1 walk, and 2 Ks over 4 innings.

• Juan Soto was 2 for 4 (a single and a double), and is now hitting .381 (8 for 21) with one run, two doubles and four runs batted in.

• Mark Vientos started for the first time all season, batting 6th as the team's Designated Hitter.

• For the second night in-a-row, Jared Young started at first base for the Mets. His 4th inning single was the only non-Soto hit by the Mets. He was also the source of the turning point (more about that below).

• Mets are now 29-34 at Busch Stadium since the ballpark opened in 2006.

• Richard Lovelady relieved Senga and gave up a home run to the first batter he faced, Ramon Urias, before settling in pitching two otherwise harmless innings.

Turning Point

When a team is down 2-0 in the 6th, it's apparent that every baserunner is key. So squandering a scoring chance can sometimes mean squandering the only scoring chance, and that was the case tonight. Mets bats were near-silent through the first 5 innings of tonight's game, but in the top of the sixth, Juan Soto led off with a double and Bo Bichette followed with a 6-pitch walk, inspiring Cardinals manager Oli Marmol to turn to his pen. He brought Gordon Graceffo in to clean up. Graceffo gave up a sharp-enough Luis Robert Jr. fly out that moved Soto to third. Then Jared Young followed up with a relatively soft liner up the middle that shortstop Masyn Winn easily snagged behind the base before firing to first where he caught Bichette straying just a bit too far. Inning over, rally over, and the Mets were unable to do much else in the remaining innings.

Three Keys

Lovelady Land

On again-Off again Mets pitcher, Richard Lovelady has now appeared in 3 of the Mets 5 games so far this season. Remarkably, he's on pace to break the Mets single season pitching appearance record, Pedro Feliciano's 92 appearances in 2010. Of course, it's early yet.

Dressed to the Nines

Kodai Senga's first two pitches of the season were 98-MPH fastballs, a significant leap from the 94.7 MPH he averaged on the pitch last season. In the second inning, Senga used a 99-MPH fastball to strikeout Jordan Walker, then another on Nathan Church, before taking a little something off with a 98-MPH fastball to get Ramon Urias on an inning-ending K. Overall, Senga struck out 9 Cardinals over 6 innings, and while he wasn't entirely sharp (3 walks and 4 hits over those 6 innings), he gave the Mets a chance to be in this game while earning the team's first Quality Start of 2026.

At the Center of It

Normally trusty centerfielder, Luis Robert Jr., had a rough bottom-of-the 3rd inning in the field tonight. First, he misread Victor Scott II's line drive allowing a leadoff double to the Cards outfielder. A JJ Wetherholt single followed, and when LRJ missed the cut-off man, the rookie shortstop took second base. Both Scott II and Wetherholt scored when the third batter of the inning, Ivan Herrera doubled down the left field line.