Cards kickoff Grapefruit play with loss to Mets
If the St. Louis Cardinals’ great second baseman Rogers Hornsby were still around, he’d no longer need to look out the window and wait for spring.
Spring is here. Baseball is back.
After a harsh winter across the country, the weather provided a fine day for baseball on Thursday when the Cardinals kicked off Grapefruit league play in Fort Lucie, FL. Up first for St. Louis, the New York Mets.
Play commenced at 12:00 CT when Mets’ pitcher R. A. Dickey fired home the first pitch — or rather, knuckled home the first pitch. Starting against him was Cardinal minor league hurler Evan MacLane. Needless to say, neither pitcher had a sparkling spring debut.
MacLane surrendered 3 runs in the 1st inning, giving the Mets an early lead. The following two innings, the Cardinals scored 5 runs –all charged to Dickey– and reclaimed the lead. And is the case with most early spring training games, battering up the pitcher was the theme of the game.
Several pitchers besides Dickey and MacLane got knocked around. St. Louis’ Charlie Zink allowed 7 runs, 5 of which were earned, in only 1.2 innings. Another Cardinal pitcher, Francisco Samuel, was touched for 6 runs in 1 innings. New York’s Sean Green surrendered 4 runs –two earned– in two-thirds innings.
But in the end after all 9 innings were complete, Cardinals’ hurlers ended up allowing 6 more runs than the Mets, and the team lost by a score of 11-17.
Zink was charged for the loss and New York’s Tobi Stoner was credited with the win. Altogether St. Louis collected 13 hits, only 1 less than the Mets. Cardinal slugger Ryan Ludwick had a fine game at the plate, going 2 for 3 with a homerun, double, two runs scored and 3 RBIs.
St. Louis will now welcome the Mets back home to Jupiter, FL where the two teams will play again on Friday at Roger Dean Stadium.
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