Break Up the Mets! Flushing Flubs Win Third Straight Game, with 7-4 Victory Over the Cardinals, in Spite of Jon Niese Leaving Game with One Out in the First Inning (Bad Knee), in the First Game of Their Three-Game Series in St. Louis!

By Nicholas Stix

After their first three-game winning streak since Independence Day, the Mets are now over .500, with a 63-62 record!

Rookie call-up righty Robert Gsellman got the win in his first big-league game, coming in in emergency relief with one out in the first for Jonathan Niese, and Jeurys Familia got his 42nd save. The Mets bullpen gave them 8 1/3 scoreless innings. Wilmer Flores hit a three-run homer in the first inning, and Justin Ruggiano hit a solo shot in the fourth.

Jose Reyes and Asrubal Cabrera got three hits each for the Mets, and Joenis Cespedes got two knocks. Cespedes, who has been gimpy with an assortment of ailments most of the season (most recently, a quad), ran well on the bases and in the field, and stole a home run from young Cardinals slugger, Stephen Piscotty, in left field, in the sixth.

P.S. I just learned from postgame announcer and former Mets pitcher, Nelson Figeuroa, regarding Jose Reyes’ belief that, as a base stealer, he owns third base, “It’s a much shorter distance to get to third.”

And here, all these years, I’d thought that all the bases were set 90 feet apart. Live and learn!