Stranded: Mets win in 18 innings despite 25 LOB

The Mets and Cardinals have combined for lengthy affairs before, having played a 20-inning game here in 2010.

Randal Grichuk had two homers and six RBIs and John Lackey worked seven strong innings for St. Louis, benefiting from the cushion.

After the Mets broke the scoreless tie in the top of the 13th inning, Jeurys Familia, in his first appearance since last Sunday, gave up a leadoff home run in the bottom of the 13th.

The New York Mets were out of it early on Friday as they were blown out by the Cardinals.

Teixeira helped give the Yankees their ninth win in 13 games when he slugged a 1-2 changeup from Fernando Rodney into the right field seats.

Yet the Mets emerged as 3-1 victors over the Cardinals Sunday, to avoid what would have been a crushing defeat on the eve of a critical series against the NL East-leading Nationals. Needless to say, he’s not going to be making his next scheduled start.

Shortstop Ruben Tejada’s sacrifice fly with the bases loaded and no outs scored second baseman Wilmer Flores with the tiebreaking run. Tejada followed with his deep fly and Campbell then bunted. Mets reliever Carlos Torres was able to set down the Cardinals in order to preserve the 3-1, 18-inning victory. Starting pitcher Bartolo Colon allowed eight hits and seven runs while striking out five over 4.1 innings to take the loss and fall to 9-8 for the season.

“We were trying to stay away from Martinez but it got to the point where it was not possible”, Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said.

“We’ve had some extra-inning games”, Collins said.

But in the 13th, Plawecki slapped a ground ball single off Cardinals reliever Carlos Villanueva to score Granderson. St. Louis went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position.

“The thought was, ‘Let’s get a couple of runs.’ I was glad we were able to hang in there and beat a very good team”, Gilmartin said. “They kept battling”. Facing Ryan Tepera (0-1), Casali led off with a drive into the left-field bullpen, his second of the season and first since June 17. Only Philadelphia (27) in 1973 and San Diego (26) in 1979 left more runners stranded in a game – and both teams lost. “We aren’t happy about that”. “We had a lot of chances to do it, left a lot of guys on base which is frustrating, but to come out with the W kind of cures that frustration”.

“I’ve never seen more flying helmets going down that runway”, Collins said. New York is 5-1 in game three of a series, 8-22 in their last 30 road games, and 2-9 in Niese’s last 11 starts as an underdog.

Cardinals: Rookie lefty Tim Cooney (0-0, 4.34) makes his fifth career start seeking his first decision.

This wasn’t the first time the teams endured a scoring drought against each other at Busch Stadium, and the Mets won the previoius one, too. They played 18 scoreless innings on April 17, 2010, before both teams scored in the 19th and the Mets won 2-1 in the 20th. Lorenzo Cain and Paulo Orlando hit home runs as Kansas City (55-35) moved a season-high 20 games above.500. Jhonny Peralta singled with one out and went to third on a two-out double by Yadier Molina before Familia struck out Tommy Pham to extend the contest.