Saves history not in the Cards for Familia

NEW YORK — Their star pitcher had been bested. All their momentum had vanished. To beat the Mets on Wednesday night, the Cardinals would need to topple Mets All-Star closer Jeurys Familia, which no team had done in the regular season in nearly a year.

Pulling off that unlikely feat in front of a hostile Citi Field crowd, the Cardinals stole a 5-4 game and a series victory from the Mets, winning two of three in a series of two National League Wild Card contenders. The win vaulted the Cardinals past the Mets in the standings and within one game of the Marlins, who currently hold the league’s second Wild Card spot.

• Up-to-the-minute standings

And the Cardinals did so against Familia, who had converted 52 consecutive save opportunities before taking a one-run lead to the mound in the ninth. Long a thorn in the Mets’ side, catcher Yadier Molina erased that lead with a one-out RBI double, before Kolten Wong plated the go-ahead run with a two-out double.

Cardinals closer Seung Hwan Oh had no such issues of his own in the bottom of the ninth, locking down his sixth save.

Yoenis Cespedes had thrown Citi Field’s crowd into a frenzy with a two-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh inning, clanging the lead-changing shot off the facing of the second deck in left-center field to chase Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright from the game. That temporarily put starter Logan Verrett in line for the win, after the righty had limited St. Louis to three runs — a Matt Holliday two-run …

continue reading in source mlb.mlb.com