Great pitching could carry the Cardinals a long way this season, and it's the biggest reason they own Major League Baseball's best record.
But even those talented arms aren't always enough to save St. Louis when the bats go cold. Another light-hitting night in New York led to a 2-1, 14-inning loss to the Mets in the series opener Monday night at Citi Field.
"Unfortunately, we just couldn't get anything going offensively, but (Matt Harvey) was pretty good, too," manager Mike Matheny told reporters during the Cardinals Live postgame show on FOX Sports Midwest. "Just a shame we couldn't figure out a way to get it done."
The Cardinals mustered only six hits in eight innings against the Mets' ace, who didn't allow a runner to reach third base after stranding two in scoring position in the first inning. He retired the side in order only twice, but St. Louis never could string even two hits together in a single frame.
As resilient as ever, the Cardinals managed to force closer Jeurys Familia into his first blown save in 14 opportunities, thanks to two singles and Jason Heyward's sacrifice fly in the ninth inning. Heyward nearly sparked a game-winning rally with a double in the 13th, but Randal Grichuk and Seth Maness both struck out on a night that saw St. Louis go 0 for 11 with runners in scoring position.
Tough pitching matchups have contributed to a sustained lack of offense for the Cardinals, who have averaged just two runs over their past six games and never scored more than four. A few lineup adjustments haven't seemed to help a team that scored well over six runs per game in their previous eight.
"We had some hard-hit balls," Matheny said. "I keep saying that. There's been a few games here where we count the number of hard-hit outs and just frustrating we can't find the holes, but stick with the process, stay with it and the hits are going to come."
3 UP
• Lackey dominant. The Cardinals' veteran right-hander turned in yet another great start to hold down the NL East leaders.
John Lackey struck out six and gave up only three hits to lower his May ERA to 1.73 in five starts. New York got its run in the fourth inning when Curtis Granderson hit a leadoff double and scored from third with one out on Lucas Duda's groundball single up the middle against a drawn-in infield shift.
"You couldn't ask for any more from anybody," Matheny said. "He had life on the fastball. He was spotting right from the start, just making good pitches and making them come to him and not making mistakes."
• Molina hitting. The Cardinals' catcher keeps quietly putting together an impressive year at the plate. He raised his season average to .302 and extended his hit streak to five games with three singles, including a key opposite-field hit to move the game-tying run to third in the ninth.
• Groundball machine. Maness threw one pitch to get a critical double play in Sunday's 2-1 win, and he kept the ball down again in a much longer outing Monday.
The Mets hit seven groundballs in eight at-bats against the right-hander, who struck out one and gave up two weak singles in two scoreless innings.
3 DOWN
• Tuivailala troubles. The Cardinals' bullpen finally cracked when recent call-up Sam Tuivailala walked two batters to start the bottom of the 14th.
The right-hander also gave up a run in the 12th inning of his only other appearance this year, but the offense saved him by scoring and going on to win in 14 innings against Pittsburgh. This time, two grounders against closer Trevor Rosenthal were all the Mets needed to hand Tuivailala the first loss of his young career.
"He's got too good of stuff not to trust (it)," Matheny said. "He's made good strides today. It was a tough task and a tough result."
• Grichuk's bad night. A great diving catch in the first inning served as the lone highlight of a long night for rookie Randal Grichuk. In just his second start since returning from a back injury that kept him out nearly four weeks, the center fielder went 0 for 6 with five strikeouts.
"We've got to look at the first few and realize (Harvey)'s pretty good," Matheny said. "We know what type of hitter he can be. Today was just a tough one."
• Opener issues. A 7-6 record in series openers wouldn't stand out if not for the Cardinals' overall winning percentage of .658. Part of it could be a hectic schedule; they are more than halfway through a stretch of 36 games in 37 days and fell to 1-4 in series openers requiring travel without a day off.
You can follow Luke Thompson on Twitter at @FS_LukeT or email him at lukegthompson87@gmail.com.
