Cardinals, Mets to finish tie game before starting another

The New York Mets, hanging on to a two-run lead in the ninth inning Thursday night, seemingly willed the rain to let up as the grounds crew was rolling out the tarp at Citi Field.

The Mets will find out early Friday night whether or not that was a mistake.

The St. Louis Cardinals scored twice with two outs in the ninth inning off Mets closer Edwin Diaz to tie the game at 4 before the rains escalated again and forced a delay and eventual suspension of the series opener. The suspended game will resume an hour before the first pitch of Friday's regularly scheduled game.

The scheduled game will pit Mets left-hander Steven Matz (5-4, 3.88 ERA) against Cardinals rookie right-hander Daniel Ponce de Leon (0-0, 1.80).

The game Thursday appeared headed for a delay when the umpires called for the tarp after the eighth inning. But as the Mets, led by rookie first baseman Pete Alonso, implored the crew to let the game continue, the rain lightened and the tarp was rolled back while drying agent was applied to the basepaths during a nine-minute delay.

Diaz walked Marcell Ozuna leading off the inning before retiring the next two batters. But with the rain falling harder than before, Kolten Wong singled off the left field wall to score Ozuna before Harrison Bader followed with a game-tying RBI double to deep left. Bader ended the Thursday portion of the game by slipping on the drenched basepaths in between second and third and getting tagged out.

"He came in, he's like 'Gosh darn it,' " Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said. "I was like, 'Hey, you tied the game, man.' "

Shildt wasn't nearly as vocal during the brief delay as the Mets and manager Mickey Callaway. But Shildt wasn't letting on if he was satisfied the Cardinals managed to tie the game after the aborted resumption.

"I don't pretend to be a weatherman, I don't pretend to be an umpire," Shildt said. "I just want to make sure (when) we're talking through it, I'm aware of what's going on. They tell us to play, we play. We'll play in the rain, we'll play on the street, wherever we need to go, we'll show up and compete."

Crew chief Jeff Kellogg told a pool reporter he and his fellow umpires thought a window to finish the game appeared just as the tarp was being pulled on to the field.

"As we said go ahead and pull the tarp, it started to lighten up and we said, 'OK, maybe we can work with this,' " Kellogg said. "When it was at a heavier clip, we felt like we weren't going to be able to get with that."

Shildt said Carlos Martinez, who was ready to pitch the bottom of the ninth Thursday, will take the mound for St. Louis when play resumes. Callaway didn't say who would pitch for the Mets if the game extends into a 10th inning but didn't rule out the possibility of Diaz returning for a second inning of work.

"The good thing is the game's not over yet," Callaway said.

The Cardinals' rainy comeback saddled Mets ace Jacob deGrom with yet another hard-luck non-win. DeGrom, who allowed two runs on six hits and no walks while striking out eight over seven innings, has allowed two or fewer runs in 98 of his 153 big league starts and failed to earn a win 46 times.

"I was a little confused," deGrom said. "Hopefully, we win this game."

Matz earned the win in his most recent start last Saturday, when he allowed three runs (two earned) while striking out a season-high 10 over six innings as the Mets beat the Colorado Rockies, 5-3.

Ponce de Leon, who is taking the turn of the injured Adam Wainwright, will be making his second big league start of the season and his first since April 23, when he didn't factor into the decision after giving up one run over five innings in the Cardinals' 4-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers. The 27-year-old last pitched for Triple-A Memphis on June 6, when he tossed three scoreless innings. He is 4-4 with a 3.90 ERA in 11 starts this season for Memphis.

Matz is 0-3 with an 8.49 ERA in three career starts against the Cardinals. Ponce de Leon has never faced the Mets.

--Field Level Media