Francisco Lindor's walk-off home run lifts Mets over Cardinals 5-4
Francisco Lindor homered off Ryan Fernandez leading off the ninth inning, and the New York Mets survived a late blown lead to beat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-4 on Friday night.
Brendan Donovan homered off Huascar Brazobán (1-0) starting the top of the ninth, tying the game at four with a drive off the right field foul pole.
Lindor drove a cutter on the third pitch from Fernandez (0-2) into the second deck in right field for his 250th career home run and his first walk-off homer with the Mets.
Earlier, Luis Torrens tied the score with an RBI double in the eighth, his fifth hit in 13 at-bats with runners in scoring position.
Juan Soto, in a 3-for-31 slide, capped a two-run fifth with a tying RBI single that drove in Tyrone Taylor, who tripled in the Mets' first run.
Brandon Nimmo entered in a 1-for-15 slump, was dropped as low as sixth in the order for first time since April 5, 2021.
Mets starter David Peterson allowed three runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings with nine strikeouts and no walks. In all, St. Louis batters struck out 15 times.
Nolan Arenado's RBI single put the Cardinals back ahead 3-2 in the sixth but Mark Vientos tied the score against Kyle Leahy when he homered for the second straight night.
Opposite-field run-scoring singles to right by Pedro Pagés and Jordan Walker built a 2-0 lead for St. Louis.
Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas lowered his ERA from 9.00 to 7.64, giving up two runs and five hits in 4 2/3 innings.
Donovan extended his hitting streak to 14 games, the longest in the major leagues this season.
Key moment
Arenado, the Cardinals' 10-time Gold Glove third baseman, made a diving tag on Luisangel Acuña for the first out of the eighth. Acuña overslid the base on Brandon Nimmo's grounder to him.
Key stat
Pete Alonso hit his eighth career triple, his first since July 22, 2023, and was stranded in the first.
Up next
Cardinals LHP Matthew Liberatore (1-1, 3.93) and Mets RHP Kodai Senga (2-1, 1.06) start Saturday.
