Mets color the scorecard to get out of Grayscale, beat Sonny and St. Louis

Mets 9 Cardinals 3 (Busch Stadium, St. Louis, MO)

Mets record: 22-11

Mets streak: Won 1

WP - Clay Holmes (4-1)

LP -Sonny Gray (3-1)

Seat on the Korner:

We select the star of the game and virtually invite him to a Seat on the Korner, just as Ralph Kiner used to do for his studio postgame show on WOR-channel 9 broadcasts in the early decades of the Mets.

Pete had the most impactful hit of the night: A two run homer that gave the Mets the lead to stay at 4-3. The Mets would rally for two more in the 5th and it forged the path to victory. Alonso would end up with two hits and two RBI as he started off May in much the same way as he finished April, winning the National League Player of the Month.

Need to Know

• The Mets' win over St. Louis is their 9th straight over the Cardinals, something they've never done before.

• Something else the Mets have never done before: tag Sonny Gray with an L. Gray was 4-0 lifetime against the Mets in his career with a 2.76 ERA in 29 and 1/3 innings.

• Clay Holmes gave up his first stolen base of the season to Lars Nootbar, but had an otherwise admirable start. He went 6 winnings and gave up three runs ,striking out three and not walking anyone in 92 pitches. It was his longest outing of the season

• Holmes also kept his season long streak of not giving up a home run alive, as he is now at 156 batters faced without giving up a homer, the longest streak to start the season by any Major League pitcher.

• Holmes also extended a streak of 33 games by Mets starting pitching where they gave up 4 runs or less, becoming the third longest streak to start a season (via Sarah Langs)

• Brandon Nimmo had three hits including a homr run to raise his average to .229 on the season.

• Francisco Alvarez also had three hits and drive in three runs.

• Every Met in the starting lineup recorded at least one hit.

• Francisco Lindor's single on the first pitch of the game gave him a .484 average leading off a game.

Turning Point

With one out in the 5th, Juan Soto hit a 114.3 mph double down the right field line on an 0-2 pitch. Gray then got Alonso to 0-2 when he did this:

It was the first script flipper of the evening, but there was another one just a few batters later ...

Three Keys

Turning Point Part 2: Defensive Boogaloo

After the Alonso home run, Brandon Nimmo and Jesse Winker singled to knock Sonny Gray out of the game. Chris Roycroft then got Mark Vientos to hit into what should have been an inning ending double play. It was such a sure double play that both Keith and Gare were looking down at their scorecards to finish the frame. Little did they know that as Gare was announcing that Roycroft got out of the inning, this happened:

This was Keith's turning point of the game, and I can't blame him. It led directly to the run that was scored here, and then another run on a single by Francisco Alvarez. The Mets wouldn't look back.

(And speaking of how defense can affect games, Carlos Mendoza put in Tyrone Taylor for defense in the 6th inning, which seemed kind of early. But in that very inning, Taylor ran down the third out of the inning on a play that Jeff McNeil might not make.)

Yes, the manager is smarter than you.

Feats of Clay

In the second inning, Holmes was hit in the foot by a comebacker by Alec Burleson. It seemed to affect him in the third as he gave up two runs to give the Cardinals a 3-2 lead. But Holmes deserves a lot of credit for hanging in and making it to six innings, giving the offense a chance to win the game.

That includes this 13 pitch battle with Masyn Winn, which Masyn lost.

Soto and the Boys

Between two home runs on Thursday, and two hits on 0-2 pitches tonight, Juan Soto seems to be heating up, which might be terrible news for the rest of the National League.

But give it up for the rest of the team as well. They loaded the bases in the second inning and while they didn't get the one big hit, they scored two runs on productive outs, which is something that the Mets haven't always excelled at. They would go on to smack 17 hits, which is the kind of thing we've expected this offense to do often this season.

In particular, Alvarez had the night that made me the most warm and fuzzy. Known for overswinging last season, Alvarez relied on his bat to ball skills tonight, and hit the ball the other way.

If Alvarez realizes that he doesn't have to hit every ball to the Puget Sound, and can produce from the bottom of the order while balancing out the production that the top of the order is providing, watch out.