Major League Baseball

Surprisingly, Mets' Colon has had Cardinals' number since 2013

Published May. 20, 2015 1:33 a.m. ET

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Bartolo Colon is trying to become the first seven-game winner in the majors, and a New York Mets record is also in sight.

Colon attempts to bounce back from his worst performance of the season by extending his recent mastery of the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday night at Citi Field.

Colon (6-2, 3.86 ERA) didn't get his seventh win last year until a 3-2 victory at St. Louis on June 18, yielding one run and four hits in eight innings. He has a 1.17 ERA while winning all three of his starts against the Cardinals since the start of the 2013 season. He's 4-0 in six career outings against them, and his teams won all of those games.

The right-hander, who turns 42 on Sunday, has also put together the longest active stretch in baseball without issuing a walk at 45 1/3 innings, seven outs shy of Bret Saberhagen's franchise record set in 1994.

Colon, though, has given up 30 hits -- five homers -- in 25 1/3 innings while splitting his last four starts and posting a 4.97 ERA. His most recent outing was his shortest of the year, surrendering six runs in five innings of a 7-0 defeat to Milwaukee on Friday. He had won his first three home starts with a 2.18 ERA.

"When he misses in on the plate like he did tonight, he's going to get hit," manager Terry Collins said.

New York (23-17) hasn't done much hitting this week, batting .190 with four runs while splitting the first two of this four-game set. Daniel Murphy had a two-run homer Tuesday, but that was one of only five hits by the Mets while Jonathon Niese was roughed up for eight runs in five innings of a 10-2 loss.

The Cardinals (26-13) matched a season high with 15 hits and scored in double digits for just the third time after manager Mike Matheny loaded the lineup with right-handers against Niese, a lefty. It was just the fourth win in 10 games for the owners of the best record in the majors.

Randal Grichuk collected two doubles, a triple and three RBIs, a day after going 0 for 6 in a 2-1 loss while becoming the first Cardinal in 17 years to strike out five times, matching the franchise record.

St. Louis is turning to Carlos Martinez (3-2, 4.73), who has lasted just 14 innings in three starts this month. He allowed two runs and seven hits while battling through a season-high 103 pitches in five-plus innings of Friday's 10-4 defeat to Detroit. It was his second straight loss, but a major improvement after being hammered for 14 runs and 16 hits while walking eight over his two previous starts.

"He just can't average 20 pitches an inning," Matheny told MLB's official website. "It's not going to work out real well for you... The stuff is there. He looks good. He's just going to have to be more on the plate with it."

Martinez yielded one unearned run and two hits with four walks in four innings of a 6-2 win over the Mets on June 16, 2014, in his only start against them - and the second of his career overall.

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