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The Mets’ nightmare of a season somehow got worse Tuesday night, and not just because they lost another game at Citi Field or got another bad start from Kodai Senga that might cost him his spot in the rotation.

Juan Soto left their 9-6 loss to the Cubs prior to the top of the fifth with what the team called left-side back tightness.

Carlos Mendoza said the left fielder was day to day after being removed from their third straight defeat because his back locked up and he was in discomfort.

The game itself was no better, as Senga took another step toward potentially pitching himself out of the rotation, as he allowed seven runs in 3 ²/₃ innings in his second start back from the IL.

Mendoza indicated he would speak with team president David Stearns about how they would handle his spot.

“David [Stearns] was pretty clear before the game that performance matters and having outings like this is not gonna cut it,” the manager said. “You get to a point where you have to go out and earn it.”

So much for Francisco Lindor coming to save the day.

The shortstop played perhaps his final minor league rehab game with Triple-A Syracuse on Tuesday, having been sidelined since April with a strained left calf.

Now, having both Lindor and Soto in the lineup together again may be in jeopardy.

Soto flied out in both of his at-bats before leaving the game, with Jared Young moving from first base to take Soto’s spot in left, while Mark Vientos entered at first base.

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By then, the Mets already trailed by five runs, thanks to another clunker from Senga.

Stearns said the rotation would be evaluated “turn by turn,” and Senga brought a 14.59 ERA over his past four starts into Tuesday.

The situation did not improve.

Senga struck out the side in order in the first, dominating with his fastball, but fell back into poor habits in the second, walking Seiya Suzuki to open the inning.

A single by Ian Happ and a hit by pitch by Matt Shaw loaded the bases with no one out.

Senga whiffed Nico Hoerner before walking Carson Kelly to force in a run. Dansby Swanson followed with a sacrifice fly before former Mets prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong’s three-run homer made it 5-0.

Afterward, Senga said through an interpreter, “I’ll continue to prepare to pitch in this league.”

But Mendoza was mystified by Senga falling apart in the second.

“That’s the frustrating part,” Mendoza said. “We were in the dugout saying, ‘What’s going on here?’ It’s hard to explain.”

They could get a boost this weekend, with Christian Scott expected to return from his IL stint, but Senga is part of a list that includes Freddy Peralta, David Peterson and Sean Manaea as significant disappointments.

With the rotation a mess and the Mets so far unable to fix it, they can hardly afford another blow to the lineup, especially involving Soto.

While the rest of the team has fallen apart, Soto recovered from the calf injury well enough to enter Tuesday leading the team in most offensive categories, with a .974 OPS — second only to the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani in the National League.

He’s been extremely durable throughout much of his career and missed just five games over the previous three seasons.

Now, the Mets are facing more time without Soto — and perhaps with Senga, despite his continued issues on the mound.

“I’ve never experienced something like this in my career,” Senga said.

Welcome to the 2026 Mets.

Sometimes past results do not predict today’s performance.

Shane McClanahan came into the night having allowed only two home runs over his last 56.0 innings pitched. Six pitches into Tuesday night’s game, he allowed two more.

The game didn’t immediately start with doom and gloom. Taylor Walls made a diving play on a grounder from Lane Thomas to open the game. Then Nick Loftin hit a solo homer to left. Then, Tampa native, Jac Caglianone followed with one to right. Two swings, two runs, and suddenly the Royals had a 2-0 lead. McClanahan recovered enough to strike out Salvador Perez and get Carter Jensen to fly out, but the damage was immediate and jarring. Tropicana Field has been kind to McLanahan lately, winning his previous five starts. This inning, an ultimately game, was not.

The Rays didn’t just concede defeat; they tried to fight back. Yandy Díaz was hit by a pitch, Jonathan Aranda singled, and Junior Caminero lined a run-scoring single to center to make it 2-1. It started to feel like the Rays were on a path to tie the game or maybe even take a lead. Instead, Richie Palacios got caught stealing to end the frame.

Building momentum and losing it became a theme of the night.

In the second, Jonny DeLuca and Chandler Simpson were walked, and after a Taylor Walls flyout and a Simpson stolen base, the Rays had runners at second and third with just one out. A tie game felt right there, practically waving from 90 feet away. Then Hunter Feduccia and Diaz struck out and took the hope back into the dugout with them.

In the third, Cedric Mullins drew a walk, but Caminero lined into a double play.

The disappointment continued in the fourth, the Royals tried to give the game away again, or at least leave the door cracked. DeLuca reached on a little pop-up single that would have been a foul ball, but the Royals touched it while it was bouncing foul. Simpson reached on a fielder’s choice, and Walls walked once again, putting runners on base. Feduccia struck out again, and it was still a 2-1 game.

McClanahan, meanwhile, had steadied himself after the strange first inning, but the fifth turned the game from frustrating to decisive. Michael Massey opened with a double, and Tyler Tolbert’s sacrifice bunt became a run when McClanahan threw it away, literally. The throwing error made it 3-1. McClanahan nearly limited it from there. Kameron Misner struck out. Thomas lined out. One more out and the Rays are still within two.

They did not get that out cleanly. Loftin, already responsible for the first homer of the night, singled home Tolbert. Then Caglianone launched his second homer of the game, a two-run shot to left-center. Just like that, 3-1 became 6-1, and the chances of the Rays winning were floating away like a helium balloon unintentionally released.

The Rays’ offense did little to change the course of the game. They went down in order in the fifth, got a Palacios single in the sixth but nothing around it, and wasted a Díaz walk in the seventh. Steven Cruz and Matt Strahm did exactly what Kansas City needed from the bullpen to keep the Rays’ bats cool.

Steven Matz gave Tampa Bay a clean seventh, but the eighth got away from him in a hurry. Loftin singled, Caglianone singled, and Perez doubled both of them in. Jensen singled, Starling Marte added a sacrifice fly, Misner doubled home another run, and a wild pitch brought in one more. It was 11-1 by the end of the inning after the entire Royals lineup came to the plate.

Caminero gave the Rays a small spark in the bottom of the eighth with a solo homer off the catwalk, his 16th, and the ninth inning brought a little late pride and surrender.

Ben Williamson gave us a position player pitching appearance and allowed an RBI double to Josh Rojas in the top half of the ninth. Then the Rays put together their best rally of the night, just a little too late. Simpson walked, Walls singled, and after two strikeouts, Aranda, Mullins, and Caminero delivered three straight RBI singles. That trimmed it to 12-5 and at least made the final score look somewhat more respectable. Palacios flew out to end it, sealing a 12-5 Royals win.

The visiting team has now won the last nine games in this Rays-Royals series, dating back to July 4, 2024. We will see if that streak continues tomorrow when Griffin Jax takes the mound for the Rays.

By the end of this week, the Mets will have played more than half their schedule and they still carry the worst record in the NL East.

But if you’ve been waiting for them to blow up the roster and start over, you’re going to have to wait a while longer.

Still, while Francisco Lindor’s impending return from the calf strain that’s sidelined him since April figures to help an ailing offense, it won’t do anything for what’s been a hugely disappointing rotation or get other injured high-profile players back on the field.

But David Stearns said that with the Aug. 3 trade deadline nearly six weeks away, Lindor and the rest of the cellar-dwelling team will get a chance to show that what they’ve done over the first nearly three months of the season isn’t who they really are.

“We have a period of time here before we have to make a finite decision about the trade deadline,” the team’s president of baseball operations said Tuesday at Citi Field. “We’re also in a period of time where we’ve got to start playing better baseball.”

That’s putting it mildly.

Despite their awful record (34-44), Stearns said, “We’re going to continue to give this team time to prove that we can get back in this in a very legitimate sense.”

But then Juan Soto left Tuesday’s 9-6 loss to the Cubs with what was termed left side back tightness.

Stearns, speaking at his usual homestand availability — which he has kept up even as the season is crumbling around him — noted that it’s impossible to blame their poor play on any one part of the team.

At different times in the press conference, he pointed to the starting rotation’s inability to stay healthy or pitch deep into games, the lineup’s failure to produce runs and the organization so far not being able to get many of their players to play to their potential.

Asked about the disappointing rotation, Stearns said, “We clearly have been inconsistent in that facet of the game. We’ve been inconsistent at various times in all segments of the team. It’s why we have the record we have.”

They’ve resorted to using openers on a frighteningly regular basis and high-profile addition Freddy Peralta has had a nightmarish season, which Stearns blamed in part on mechanical issues that might be impacting his location.

The acquisitions on offense haven’t been much better, with Bo Bichette still waiting to get going and Jorge Polanco and Luis Robert Jr. not close to returning from injuries.

And more inexperienced players haven’t developed, outside of Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing.

“Both run-scoring and the starting rotation have to be more consistent going forward to go on the type of run of prolonged quality play we need to have,” Stearns said.

But he remains confident in the group he put together.

Asked if he could “fix” the roster during the season, Stearns said, “The word ‘fix’ is not something I’m thinking about. I think it’s about how to get players to play up to their potential. For a large segment of the roster, I don’t think we’ve seen that this year.”

Even with that lack of progress, Stearns said he was “pleased” with the processes of the coaching staff, much of which was overhauled during the offseason.

The Mets entered Tuesday six games out of the final wild-card spot in the National League and 14 ½ games behind Atlanta atop the NL East. All this from a team that owner Steve Cohen said during the spring needed to make the postseason this year.

“I think Steve wants us to, certainly, be better than we are,” Stearns said. “He’s frustrated. We’re all frustrated. Steve expects us to do better than this. I expect us to be better than this.”He, like me, is gonna withhold judgment on a trade deadline strategy til have to make a decision closer to that time.”

The clock is ticking.

There’s a running joke in one of my group chats that Cole Young looks like a Disney prince who decided to play baseball instead (show me the lie). In tonight’s series opener against the Pirates, Young Prince Cole had a game fit for a golden era Disney film. Making his first-ever appearance as a big-leaguer in PNC Park, where the Pittsburgh-born Young grew up attending games, and in front of a host of friends, family, and former coaches – including his coach at North Allegheny High, Andrew Heck – Young had a go-ahead homer that would be the game-winner for the Mariners in a narrow 3-2 victory over the Pirates.

The Mariners scored all their runs via the longball tonight, even though only two made it over the fence: they made 11 outs in the air, along with a pair of hard-hit lineouts, but the balls consistently died at the warning track. Meanwhile, the Pirates managed to scrape out a lead on George Kirby, first going up 1-0 in the second on a combination of an Endy Rodríguez double and a Marcell Ozuna RBI single, both hits coming on four-seamers that caught too much plate.

Pittsburgh would add on another run in the bottom of the third, although this wasn’t as much Kirby’s fault. Brandon Lowe singled on a curveball that was well-located, and then would come around to score on a weakly-hit ball off the bat of Nick Gonzales that J.P. Crawford couldn’t field cleanly. Today was the first day Crawford has looked shaky at third after being impressive in his first few turns at the position, but he was far from the only one performing some shaky defense, as even the normally sure-handed Colt Emerson threw one away, and Josh Naylor struggled to corral some of those wilder throws.

To his credit, Kirby was able to navigate around those hiccups and also some self-inflicted traffic. He and Cal Raleigh made a good adjustment after the first couple of innings, realizing the Pirates were keyed in on his fastball, and Kirby found the command over his sweeper, which had been somewhat all over the place in the early innings. Kirby leaned heavily on the sweeper over the rest of his outing, throwing it 46% of the time – normally he uses the pitch under 30% of the time, while halving the use of his fastball. All five of his strikeouts today came on the sweeper.

“It seemed like they had a pretty good gameplan of swinging first pitch, and I don’t blame ’em,” said Kirby. “But I feel like I settled in pretty good once I got that slider working.”

The Mariners offense has been stingy with giving Kirby run support, but Cal Raleigh came through with his first homer after coming back from his stint on the IL, punishing a mistake slider Pirates starter Mitch Keller hung on the plate and finally getting a ball over the fence at PNC Park, a 393-footer to right center.

The Mariners would do just enough to get past the Pirates in the seventh inning, spurred on by the hometown kid, Cole Young. Luke Raley led off with a hustle double, lacing a sinker into center and running hard enough to beat Jake Mangum’s throw in. He needn’t have hustled quite so hard, though. With Young due up, 0-for-2 on the day so far with a pair of groundouts (including an inning-ending GIDP), the Pirates elected to leave in the righty Keller instead of going to the bullpen. Keller made a mistake pitch, leaving a sweeper right in Young’s lefty loop zone, and Young – who said he was just trying to hit a single into right to score the run – instead hit play on a highlight reel that will be replayed at every family gathering to come for years, crushing a go-ahead home run that went right past the section of his family and friends.

“I knew I got it good, so it had a chance,” said Young postgame. “t’s really special. I got my whole family, all my friends in the stands…It was a super surreal moment. It was great. I just kind of blacked out a little bit.”

“Just glad I got the job done,” he added, because once the son of a blue-collar rust belt city like Pittsburgh, always the lunchpail-toter.

The Mariners couldn’t add on after that despite some more traffic on the bases, leaving the back end of the bullpen just one measly run to work with. José A. Ferrer was terrific, putting down his assigned hitters in the seventh 1-2-3, Eduard Bazardo had to work a little harder, but was able to work around a single from lefty Ryan O’Hearn and a semi-intentional walk to Marcell Ozuna to keep the score intact. He might not have had a clean inning, but he did pick up a Pitching Ninja highlight:

Armed with that same one-run lead, Andrés Muñoz had the ninth and looked maybe the best he has all season: his fastball was up a full two ticks, averaging 100.7 and touching 102. He struck out the side, including Spencer Horwitz, who walks more than he strikes out, and ended his night on a filthy bit of sequencing to Brandon Lowe where he went down with a slider for a foul followed by high heat.

But tonight belongs to the Prince of Pittsburgh, Cole Young. In a season that’s been plagued by injuries, Young has been the Mariners’ iron man, playing every day. He’s been the steady lighthouse in an infield that’s been beset by injuries and mistakes both rookie and veteran, even flexing back to shortstop when needed despite the difficulties he experienced making the full-time shift to second base last year. Because of his availability and steady hand at the keystone, he’s essentially been unbenchable, meaning that as teams load up on lefties to serve the Mariners a bottomless buffet of southpaws, Young hasn’t been granted the day off, even as he’s gone through fallow periods with the bat.

Tonight, in front of friends and family and the high school baseball coaches who helped shape the player he is today, Young was rewarded with a fairy-tale moment. His high school coach even got the home run ball. Heck offered to give it back to Cole, but Cole told him to keep it, because what matters even more than the happily ever after are the people who helped you get there in the first place.

The rain postponed last night’s series opener against the Chicago Cubs. The weather gods decided not to bless us for a second straight night, so we were forced to watch another crappy game of Mets baseball in which the team fell behind early thanks to a bad performance from a starting pitcher and the bats never seriously threatened to get back in the game. The final result was a 9-6 loss for the team’s third straight loss. Read on for the fun, I guess.

Kodai Senga took the mound for the Mets tonight. It has been a chore to watch him pitch for the better part of a year now, and after a solid 1-2-3 inning in which he looked like the old version of himself, tonight was unfortunately no different. Senga started the second inning off by loading the bases – on a walk, single, and hit-by-pitch – with nobody out, and after striking out Nico Hoerner to record the first out of the inning, he issued yet another walk to force in the first run of the game. A hard-struck sacrifice fly to left brought in a second run but also put the Mets an out away from ending the inning with a manageable 2-0 deficit. Well, unfortunately, Pete Crow-Armstrong had other plans, as he socked a three-run homer over the right field wall to make it 5-0 after just an inning and a half.

The Mets’ bats struck back in the bottom half of the frame, however. Cubs starter Edward Cabrera had tossed a first inning, and he retired the first two batters in the second. But they then loaded the bases on a walk, single, and another walk, bringing Francisco Alvarez up to the plate. On a 2-2 pitch, the number-nine hitter lined a single to center to bring two runs home and make it a 5-2 ballgame. After issuing yet another walk, Cabrera struck out Bo Bichette to end the inning, but only after throwing a lot of pitches and cutting the Cubs’ lead.

Unfortunately, Senga turned around and gave those runs right back before too long. In the top of the fourth inning – with this year’s SNY Kidcaster in the booth, no less – Carson Kelly worked a one-out walk, and Dansby Swanson followed with a two-run homer to left to make it 7-2 Cubs. Senga then issued another walk and was subsequently taken out after recording just one out. Cionel Pérez came on and stranded the runner at first, but that wasn’t nearly enough to save Senga from yet another atrocious line – 3.2 innings, 3 hits, 5 walks, 6 strikeouts, 2 homers, 7 earned runs. It leaves the Mets with only more questions about how to navigate their continued starting pitching woes.

As if this game wasn’t going poorly enough on its own, Juan Soto exited the game after the fourth with what was later revealed to be left side back tightness. Unfortunately, that would not prove to be the most notable injury-related departure of the game, as the bottom of the fifth ended on a groundout in the second base hole in which Cabrera had to cover the bag and came up lame after stretching to catch the throw. A cart had to come out to remove him from the field, and Hoby Milner came on in the bottom of the sixth to replace him.

Of course, none of these factors made much of an impact on the final result. To his credit, Pérez ate 2.1 innings and retired every batter he faced, which the Mets sorely needed simply to help preserve their bullpen. Tobias Myers was not quite as effective when he came on in the seventh, as he surrendered two runs – all in the eighth on three straight doubles – in his two innings of work. He may have surrendered more if not for two successful challenges by the Mets – including one in the seventh in which Crow-Armstrong was thrown out stealing second when the batter behind him worked a walk. Yes, that is apparently possible. No, I don’t have the energy to describe how that happened. Go look it up.

As far as the bats go, Alvarez did hit a one-out solo homer in the bottom of the seventh off former Met Phil Maton, giving him all three RBIs for the Mets on the night up to that point. They scored some more meaningless runs in the ninth, as Carson Benge hit a two-out RBI single and Bichette followed with a two-run homer. Does it matter? Not really. The Mets lost 9-6. Doubleheader tomorrow.

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Win Probability Added

What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Francisco Alvarez, +11% WPA
Big Mets loser: Kodai Senga, -41% WPA
Mets pitchers: -41% WPA
Mets hitters: -9% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Francisco Alvarez two-run single in the second, +10.6% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Pete Crow-Armstrong three-run homer in the second, -18.7% WPA

Juan Soto left Tuesday night's Mets game against the Cubs in the fifth inning with what the team said is left-side back tightness. He had gone hitless in two at-bats, wincing during both. He was seen in the dugout with a heat wrap around his lower back before he came out and headed into the clubhouse.

Jared Young took over in left field to start the fifth inning. It was the second time this season Soto has left a game early. A strained right calf put him on the injured list in April and cost him 15 games.

Soto went into Tuesday hitting .299 with a .395 on-base percentage, 17 home runs and a .965 OPS through 61 games. Until this season, he had been durable, with no stints on the injured list since 2021.

Kodai Senga delivered another dud, Juan Soto left the game early because of back tightness and the Mets lost again, falling to the Cubs, 9-6, in front of 35,668 fans Tuesday night at Citi Field. 

The Mets, who have lost three straight and allowed 30 runs over that span, are now 10 games below the .500 mark at 34-44. The Cubs are 41-37. 

Here are the takeaways....

-The Mets' rotation woes continued as the Cubs scored five times in the second inning against Senga. The night had started very well for the beleaguered Mets’ righty – he blazed through the first inning, retiring the side in order with two strikeouts and hitting as high as 98.9 miles per hour on the radar gun. It quickly unraveled, however. Senga walked the first hitter in the second inning, Seiya Suzuki, gave up a single to Ian Happ and hit Matt Shaw with a pitch, loading the bases. One out later, Carson Kelly worked a walk in an eight-pitch at-bat, forcing in a run. After Dansby Swanson cracked a sac fly, Crow-Armstrong mashed his three-run homer for a 5-0 Cubs lead. Senga heard plenty of boos as he trudged off the mound when the inning was finally over.

-Walks have helped sap Senga’s effectiveness all season – he entered the game having walked 6.4 per nine innings this season. Peep this to get an idea of how bad that is: José Soriano of the Angels has the worst walk rate among qualified pitchers (4.5), but it’s nearly two walks fewer than Senga. Senga was not a good matchup for the Cubs, whose hitters owned MLB’s highest walk rate entering the game, and he finished his brief outing with five walks and a hit batter.

-Senga threw 31 pitches in the second inning alone, which meant he was never going to pitch too deep into the game. He didn’t, getting just 11 outs and leaving to more boos with two out and one on in the fourth inning and the Mets trailing, 7-2. In all, Senga allowed three hits and seven runs, including a two-run homer by Swanson, in 3.2 innings. He struck out six and threw 98 pitches (58 strikes). His season ERA ballooned to 10.08. In the two starts since he returned to the Met rotation, he’s allowed 11 runs in 7.2 innings, a 12.91 ERA.

-The Mets entered Tuesday’s game having allowed 151 runs in the first three innings of games, the second-most in the majors, behind only the awful Rockies (161). The Mets have now allowed at least one run in the first three frames in each of their last 13 games.

-The Mets quickly responded after the Cubs took the lead, scoring twice in the bottom of the second with two out. Marcus Semien walked, Brett Baty singled and MJ Melendez worked a walk on a 3-2 pitch. Francisco Alvarez followed by whacking a single into center that plated two runs. The Mets seemed poised to possibly add more when Carson Benge walked, but Cubs starter Edward Cabrera struck out Bo Bichette for the second time to end the inning.

-Alvarez hit a solo homer in the seventh inning, his sixth of the season, a long shot to center off Phil Maton that was clocked at 105.2 mph off the bat.

-The Mets had some late life, too. In the ninth inning, Bichette hit a two-run homer and Benge added an RBI single to trim the Cub lead to three runs.

-Soto, whose streak of 13 consecutive games reaching base safely ended, came out of the game after the fourth inning. He was replaced in left field by Jared Young, who moved from first base. Mark Vientos took over at first for Young. The Mets announced that Soto left with back tightness. He was spotted late in the game back on the Mets bench.

-Cabrera got injured getting the final out of the fifth inning when he covered first and stretched to catch a throw from Nico Hoerner. Cabrera, in obvious pain as he clutched at his left inner thigh, left the field on a cart to polite applause from the Citi Field crowd. It was later announced that Cabrera had suffered a left hamstring/adductor strain. Cabrera allowed two runs on three hits, striking out four and walking four.

-Cionel Pérez provided nifty relief for the Mets, coming in to get the final out of the fourth and then throwing two consecutive 1-2-3 innings.

-Weird play in the seventh: Crow-Armstrong was on first and ran on the pitch as Michael Busch drew a walk. Even though Crow-Armstrong was forced to second because of the walk, the Mets had thrown the ball to the bag and then challenged that Crow-Armstrong had come off the base and gotten tagged. Upon review, the umpires agreed and Crow-Armstrong was ruled out after “losing possession” of the bag and being tagged by Bichette. Perhaps not surprisingly, Cubs manager Craig Counsell was ejected in the post-play discussion.

Game MVP: Pete Crow-Armstrong.

The former Met prospect, dealt for Javy Báez and Trevor Williams at the 2021 trade deadline, smacked a key three-run homer for the Cubs. Dansby Swanson rates, too – he had four RBI.

Highlights

Two strikeouts in a 1-2-3 first inning for Kodai Senga 🔥

Senga's fastball hit 98.9 MPH on the radar gun pic.twitter.com/MzU9vJ8W6O

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 23, 2026

Francisco Alvarez with a two-run single! pic.twitter.com/bEvDnHfp1y

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 24, 2026

A solo home run for Francisco Alvarez!

He's driven in all three Mets runs tonight pic.twitter.com/LYNmVmP7pA

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 24, 2026

Carson Benge drives home Brett Baty to make it 9-4 pic.twitter.com/u9heiKDhdM

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 24, 2026

Bo Bichette with a two-run blast to make it 9-6 in the 9th pic.twitter.com/2nMXXFQbZq

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 24, 2026

What's next

The Mets and Cubs will play a day-night doubleheader on Wednesday. First game is set for 1:10 p.m. with Game 2 slated for 7:10 p.m.

The good news for the St. Louis Cardinals was the fact that Kyle Leahy shut down the Arizona Diamondbacks for the first half of Tuesday night’s game at Busch Stadium. The bad news is Diamondbacks starting pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez also shut down the Cardinals for the first half of the game. It would be crucial misplays at the end of the game that would ultimately cost St. Louis Tuesday night.

The Diamondbacks had the most opportunities early as Ketel Marte doubled on the first pitch of the game. He was moved over to third on a productive groundout by Perdomo, but Kyle Leahy got out of the jam by striking out Carroll and getting Moreno to fly out to center. Arizona would also threaten in the top of the 3rd inning with an almost identical opportunity as Groover hit a ground rule double to lead off the Diamondbacks 3rd, was moved over to third on a groundout by Troy. However, Leahy then struck out Marte and Perdomo lined out to keep Arizona from grabbing a lead.

The St. Louis Cardinals wouldn’t have a baserunner until the bottom of the 3rd inning when Pedro Pagés drew a two-out walk, but he was stranded when JJ Wetherholt grounded out to end the Cardinals 3rd. Jordan Walker collected the first Cardinals hit with one out in the bottom of the 4th inning. Lars Nootbaar followed that with his own single giving St. Louis their first scoring threat of the game, but it would be all for naught as Nelson Velázquez struck out and Jose Fermin lined out to center.

After Kyle Leahy pitched around a Gurriel Jr. double in the top of the 5th and a one-out walk in the top of the 6th, the Cardinals would threaten again in the bottom of the 6th inning when Iván Herrera drew a one-out walk. Jordan Walker followed Herrera’s walk with a sharp single to right field for his second hit of the game and Lars Nootbaar drew a walk which loaded the bases for St. Louis. What would follow would be a massive missed opportunity as Nelson Velázquez popped out to short left field where Perdomo caught the ball, but collided with outfielder Troy. Iván Herrera tagged up on the play and was sent home apparently by Pop Warner trying to score on the confusion of the colliding fielders, but he was thrown out at home plate on a play that was not contested by manager Oli Marmol leaving the game scoreless after 6 innings complete.

Kyle Leahy was nothing short of impressive as he gave the St. Louis Cardinals 6 1/3 innings Tuesday night which is a career-high for him. He was taken out of the game with one out in the top of the 7th inning when Oli Marmol brought in Max Rajcic to face Nolan Arenado. He was able to get Nolan to chase a 3-0 four-seam fastball grounding out to his third base counterpart Blaze Jordan for the second. He would get Gurriel Jr. out on a popup in front of the mound which was awkwardly handled by Pedro Pagés after the rest of the infield baled on the play. Outstanding performance, Kyle Leahy!

The Cardinals would miss another opportunity to provide run support to Leahy’s fine start in the bottom of the 7th inning when Blaze Jordan would draw a two-out walk and then advance to second on a wild pitch by reliever Morillo. Jimmy Crooks was brought up as a pinch-hitter for Pedro Pagés, but he would strike out looking leaving Jordan alone in his thoughts at second.

Max Rajcic stayed in the game to handle the top of the 8th inning for the Cardinals. He would unfortunately walk Groover on four straight pitches bringing up Troy who homered to deep center in Monday night’s game, but he struck out on a nasty 82 mph diving curve. He then got Marte to ground out on an awkward attempt at a double play where both Rajcic and Fermin were standing on first base trying to corral the return throw from JJ Wetherholt which was unsuccessful. Fortunately, it did not matter as Perdomo grounded out sharply to Alec Burleson to end the top of the 8th inning.

After the Cardinals bats remained silent in the bottom of the 8th inning, Matt Svanson was brought in to keep the game scoreless for the top half of the 9th and give St. Louis a chance to walk it off in the bottom half. That didn’t work out like the Cardinals wanted. He was able to strikeout leadoff man Corbin Caroll on a nasty 97 mph sinker, but Jordan Walker lost a flyball from Moreno in the lights for a single. Moreno would advance into scoring position at second on a wild pitch by Svanson and then Smith walked bringing up Nolan Arenado with two on and just one out. Spoiler Alert: this encounter did not end well for the Cardinals as Nado turned on a 3-2 fastball and ripped it into the corner giving the Diamondbacks a 9th inning 1-0 lead and it would get worse. Gurriel Jr. connected on a 3-2 single to center scoring both Smith and Arenado making it 3-0 Diamondbacks. Gordon Graceffo was brought in to try and limit Arizona to just 3 runs so there would be some kind of chance in the bottom of the 9th. That hope was also unsuccessful as Gordon walked two to load the bases and then fell over Marte who scored on a passed ball charged to Jimmy Crooks giving Arizona a larger than it needed to be 4-0 lead before the top of the 9th mercifully ended on a flyout by Perdomo.

I wish I could report that the middle and bottom half of the Cardinals lineup pulled off a miracle rally in the bottom of the 9th against Diamondbacks reliever Paul Sewald, but that would be inaccurate. Would you believe that the Cardinals would bring the potential winning run to the plate, though? That really happened after Lars Nootbaar doubled, Jose Fermin singled and Alec Burleson doubled to give St. Louis a run making it 4-1. Blaze Jordan came up with runners at second and third representing the tying run. He would manage a sacrifice fly scoring Fermin cutting the Arizona lead in half at 4-2. Jimmy Crooks looked to redeem himself for the passed ball and run in the top of the 9th inning by doing something dramatically cool in the bottom of the 9th. He would rip a single to right scoring Burleson and making it a one run game. Good gravy. That brought up none other than JJ Wetherholt as the potential winning run. The Diamondbacks were forced to bring in lefthander Brandyn Garcia to try to shut down JJ. Wetherholt unfortunately struck out. BUMMER. The good news? There’s always tomorrow.

Matthew Liberatore will try to turnaround his season Wednesday night as the St. Louis Cardinals play game 3 of their 4 game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Matthew will be opposed by one of the top Diamondbacks prospect Mitch Britt who will make his Major League debut for the Diamondbacks. First pitch is scheduled for 6:45pm central time at Busch Stadium and the TV broadcast will be available on Cardinals.tv.

Another top pitching transfer is making his way to Fort Worth. On the same day the Horned Frogs reportedly landed Tennessee freshman left-hander Taylor Tracey, TCU has reportedly added Oregon junior right-hander Collin Clarke. The 6-foot-3, 205-pounder from Irvine, California went 6-3 with a 4.92 ERA along with 77 strikeouts and 20 walks in 78.2 innings pitched this season. Clarke appeared in 18 games with 13 starts. In his three years with the Ducks, Clarke has made 44 appearances and 27 starts. He has one year of eligibility left.

64 Analytics was first to report the news, which was republished by Jamie Plunkett of HornedFrogBlitz. For his career, Clarke holds an 11-5 record and a 4.96 ERA. He has 151 strikeouts and 45 walks and opposing batters are hitting .262 against him in his career. He played high school baseball at Santa Margarita Catholic in Rancho Santa Margarita, California, where he went 15-5 with a 2.08 ERA, 130 strikeouts and 22 walks in 131.1 innings. He held opposing hitters to a .232 batting average while tossing five complete games.