Cardinals Lose Contreras as They Drop Their Fourth Straight

08/05/2024 05:25

The Cardinals suffered their fourth straight loss at the hands of the Mets Tuesday night 7-5 in a game that saw a blown lead and a significant injury to a very important player.

The Cardinals jumped to an early lead with a Brendan Donovan leadoff home run. The Cardinals kept the foot on the gas scoring two more runs on a Nolan Arenado sacrifice fly and Alec Burleson RBI single ending the first inning enjoying a 3-0 lead.

The good start was tarnished in the top of the second when a J.D. Martinez swing caught the left forearm of Willson Contreras. Contreras reacted immediately in a lot of pain and was lifted from the game to get imaging on his arm. The imaging came back with bad news as it was found that his left forearm had been fractured.

This is a devastating blow to a Cardinals team that is sputtering at the plate. Contreras was leading the team in Slugging, On base, Runs, Doubles and Home Runs and the teams most consistent hitter. Any type of lengthy absence will be felt in terms of run production.

Ivan Herrera took over behind the plate catching for Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas who found success though the first four innings. It all unraveled in the fifth inning as Mikolas gave up six straight hits. Most notably a Brandon Nimmo three-run home run to tie the game 3-3 and a Pete Alonso two-run double putting the Mets ahead 5-3. This chased Mikolas without recording an out in the fifth.

Mikolas' finished the day showing four plus innings giving up six runs on nine hits and striking out three. This performance gave the veteran his fifth loss on the season and raising his ERA to 6.43.

Kyle Leahy came in with an inherited runner on second base and gave up a lead extending single to J.D. Martinez bringing the score to 6-3.

In the bottom of the sixth inning Alec Burleson continued his good day at the plate blasting his third home run of the year cutting the lead 6-4. Burleson had a nice day at the plate with three hits in five trips while driving in two.

The Cardinals squandered an opportunity in the bottom of the seventh inning with the bases loaded and the heart of the plate coming up. With one out Nolan Arenado popped to the second basemen for an easy second out and Paul Goldschmidt struck out on four pitches to end the Redbird threat.

A Pete Alonso home run extended the Mets lead to 7-4 in the top of the ninth as the Cardinals moved to the bottom of the inning where Lars Nootbaar put the Cardinals within one with his second home run of the season. The team put the winning run at the plate with a Herrera single and subsequent Arenado walk for Goldschmidt and Burleson to strike out to end the game.

This was a game full of devastation, none more heartbreaking than the loss of the teams signal caller and offensive catalyst Willson Contreras. Then to add a blown lead on top of it while the offense left 10 on base makes this one of the worst losses of the young 2024 season.

The Cardinals will look to avoid the sweep Wednesday afternoon sending ace Sonny Gray to the mount to face off against Mets southpaw José Quintana at Busch Stadium. First pitch will be 12:15pm CST.