ST. LOUIS — The Mets eschewed the local speciality of toasted ravioli last night and were left staring at a plate of wild Rice.
At least the Mets aren’t stale, finding a different way to lose every night. This time it was Scott Rice’s wild pitch in the seventh inning that allowed the go-ahead run to score in the Mets’ 4-2 loss to the Cardinals at Busch Stadium.
The misery continued for the Mets (14-23), who lost their sixth straight and will try to avoid getting swept four games when Jon Niese faces Adam Wainwright in today’s series finale.
”Outside of a few innings we’ve been in every game in the last week,” manager Terry Collins said. “We just cannot finish it. We cannot get a big hit. We cannot get a big out. We cannot make a big play when we need to.”
The Mets finally received a strong start from Shaun Marcum, but that was flushed with two outs in the seventh when Rice entered and uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Daniel Descalso to score the go-ahead run. The Cardinals got insurance in the eighth on Yadier Molina’s pinch-hit RBI single against LaTroy Hawkins.
Rice, a lefty who made his major league debut this season after 14 years in the minors, was involved in a crazy play on Monday that helped sink the Mets. Rice kicked Matt Carpenter’s grounder into foul territory on the first base side, and when catcher John Buck retrieved the ball the plate was left uncovered, allowing Ty Wigginton to score the go-ahead run in the Cardinals’ 6-3 victory.
”The ball hasn’t really been bouncing our way, and for me in particular,” Rice said.
Rick Ankiel’s two-run homer in the seventh against Seth Maness had resurrected the Mets from the dead. Ankiel, who broke into the majors as a pitcher with the Cardinals in 1999 and remained in the organization until 2009, cleared the fence in deep left-center for his sixth homer of the season. He was making his second start for the Mets after signing with the club on Monday.
The Mets were just glad to see phenom Shelby Miller depart in the sixth, with the Cardinals leading 2-0. The rookie went 5 2/3 innings and surrendered four hits with six strikeouts and a walk.
In his first solid start of the season, Marcum went 6 2/3 innings and allowed three runs, two earned, on five hits with one walk and three strikeouts. It was the first time in four starts this year that Marcum completed five innings.
”The important thing is the team, and we lost, so it really doesn’t matter what I did on the mound,” Marcum said.
The Cardinals took a 2-0 lead in the fourth. Jon Jay doubled with two outs and then got caught in a rundown between second and third that allowed Matt Holliday to score the game’s first run. The inning should have ended there, but as Wright was tagging Jay, the ball popped out of his glove. Jay went to third and scored on Tony Cruz’s ensuing single.
”We’re not playing good baseball, that’s easy to see,” Wright said. “But it’s a resilient group and we know there are going to be tough times throughout the course of the season, and we’re going through a tough one right now.”
Buck got plunked with two outs in the fourth, but was erased in an attempted steal of second with Ankiel at the plate.
Buck was no gazelle on the bases in the second inning, when he was doubled off second base after Ruben Tejada flied out to center.
”There is no magic formula — we’ve got to execute better,” Collins said. “Number one, you’ve got to believe in yourself. Then you’ve got to trust your teammates and have to believe in the team. We’re going to do that [today].”