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Cardinals Outlast Mets

Edmundo Sosa hit the go-ahead single in a three-run 11th inning and the hard-charging Cardinals climbed all the way back into postseason position Tuesday night with a 7-6 victory over the New York Mets.

 

New York scored twice in the bottom of the 11th and had two runners aboard when Kwang Hyun Kim retired pinch-hitter Albert Almora Jr. on a grounder for his second career save - at last closing out a mentally grueling game that took 4 hours, 34 minutes.

 

Tyler O'Neill homered and drove in three runs for the streaking Cardinals. They've won four straight and six of seven to vault into the second NL wild-card slot by a half-game over Cincinnati, which lost 6-5 in Pittsburgh.

 

Demoted closer Alex Reyes (8-8) got Francisco Lindor to ground into an inning-ending double play with runners at the corners in the 10th, firing up the Cardinals. First baseman Paul Goldschmidt stepped on the bag and threw home, trapping Kevin Pillar in a rundown.

 

Then the Cardinals got three singles in the 11th off rookie Jake Reed (0-1), just activated from the injured list.

 

Both teams used eight pitchers. O'Neill put St. Louis ahead 4-3 with a two-run homer in the eighth against reliever Jeurys Familia, who was booed off the mound.

 

Baez tied it with a leadoff drive in the ninth, sending the first pitch from Giovanny Gallegos to left field beyond a leaping O'Neill and over the orange home run line on the blue wall.

 

It was the first time Baez tied a big-league game with a homer in the ninth inning or later. He came out of the dugout for a curtain call as the Citi Field crowd of 21,825 chanted his name.

 

Jon Lester (5-6, 4.75 ERA) pitches Wednesday night in the series finale. The 37-year-old lefty has won six straight decisions versus the Mets and is 8-1 with a 3.18 ERA in 11 career regular-season starts against them. He is 2-1 with a 4.30 ERA in eight outings for St. Louis since his July 30 trade from Washington. Last time out, Lester allowed two runs and three hits over seven innings in a no-decision against Cincinnati.

 

Tylor Megill (3-4, 4.06) struck out 10 over seven innings, both career bests, in a 10-3 win last Friday against the Yankees.

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