Streak snappers

Streak snappers

Cardinals best Familia, win series in New York

MLB.com NEW YORK — Their star pitcher had been bested.

All their momentum had vanished. To beat the Mets on Wednesday night, the Cardinals would need to topple Mets All-Star closer Jeurys Familia, which no team had done in the regular season in nearly a year.

Pulling off that unlikely feat in front of a hostile Citi Field crowd, the Cardinals stole a 5-4 game and a series victory from the Mets, winning two of three in a series of two National League Wild Card contenders. The win vaulted the Cardinals past the Mets in the standings and within one game of the Marlins, who currently hold the league's second Wild Card spot.

And the Cardinals did so against Familia, who had converted 52 consecutive save opportunities before taking a one-run lead to the mound in the ninth.

Long a thorn in the Mets' side, catcher Yadier Molina erased that lead with a one-out RBI double, before Kolten Wong plated the go-ahead run with a twoout double. Cardinals closer Seung Hwan Oh had no such issues of his own in the bottom of the ninth, locking down his sixth save.

Yoenis Cespedes had thrown Citi Field's crowd into a frenzy with a twoout, two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh inning, clanging the leadchanging shot off the facing of the second deck in left-center field to chase Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright from the game. That temporarily put starter Logan Verrett in line for the win, after the righty had limited St.

Louis to three runs — a Matt Holliday two-run double and a Matt Adams RBI hit in the third — in seven innings.

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED So long, saves streak: When the Cardinals rallied for a game-tying run in the top of the ninth, they snapped what was the third-longest saves streak in Major League history.

Jedd Gyorko walked with one out, and Molina drove home pinch-runner Randal Grichuk with a gapper to left on the first pitch he saw. Two batters later, Wong drilled a 2-2 pitch to give St. Louis a lead it would keep.

Wainwright's high-wire act: Wainwright, whose infamy in Queens has only grown since he ended the Mets' pennant hopes by closing out Game 7 of the 2006 NL Championship Series, played with Citi Field's emotions for much of the night. St. Louis' ace allowed many baserunners but routinely halted rallies, Cespedes' homer aside.

Wainwright allowed 11 hits and four runs over 6 2/3 innings.

La Potencia: A lull descended over Citi Field in the bottom of the seventh, while the Mets threatened to spoil yet another promising rally.

But most of the stadium's 37,851 fans came to life when Travis d'Arnaud scored on Wainwright's wild pitch and continued to buzz as Cespedes fouled off three consecutive fullcount pitches. When the outfielder crushed Wainwright's ninth pitch a projected 439 feet from the plate, according to Statcast™, turning a onerun deficit into a one-run lead, the crowd burst into a frenzy.

Right on the mark: Verrett kept the Cardinals in check through two innings but fell into trouble in the third, which started with a walk to Wainwright.

Verrett allowed Aledmys Diaz to reach on a single but had recorded two outs by the time Holliday stepped into the batter's box. He sent a two-run double into the right-field corner, though, and came around to score one batter later when Adams lifted another double to virtually the same spot, making it a 3-1 game.

WHAT'S NEXT Cardinals: Right-hander Michael Wacha leads the Cardinals into their series opener in Miami on Thursday at 6:10 p.m. CT.

He'll look to improve from the last time he pitched against the Marlins, on July 17, when he lasted just four innings and allowed three runs in a 6-3 St. Louis loss.

Mets: A rare series-opening matinee awaits the Mets, who will return to Citi Field on Thursday for a 1:10 p.m. ET game against the Rockies. Jacob deGrom will start that contest opposite Tyler Anderson, one of two lefthanders the Mets will see in the four-game series.

By Joshua Needelman and Anthony DiComo