Cardinals feed off Lackey's intensity on the mound
John Lackey wasn't one of the St. Louis Cardinals' six All-Stars but his recent performances have been worthy of that status.
Lackey looks to continue his run of outstanding outings Saturday night when the Cardinals face the New York Mets.
Since allowing 10 runs in a loss at Colorado on June 8, Lackey is 3-1 with a 1.69 ERA in his last six starts. He's been particularly good at home all season, going 5-2 with a 1.98 ERA in nine outings while completing at least seven innings in eight of them.
"He brings an intensity to the club that we need," third baseman Matt Carpenter told MLB's official website.
Lackey (7-5, 2.99 ERA) was headed for another victory last Saturday, yielding one run before leaving with two outs in the seventh only to watch the bullpen give up five runs in a 6-5 loss in 14 at Pittsburgh.
"Right now we've got to pitch well to win ballgames," Lackey said.
He did that against the Mets on May 18, allowing one run and three hits in seven innings opposite Matt Harvey before St. Louis fell 2-1 in 14 at New York (47-43).
The Cardinals, a major league-best 32-11 at home, took the opener of this three-game series 3-2 on Friday, their 15th win against the Mets in the last 20 matchups at Busch Stadium.
All-Star Jhonny Peralta is 8 for 18 with two homers over the past four games and his solo shot in the sixth Friday put St. Louis up for good. Keeping that stretch going won't be easy since he's 3 for 15 against scheduled starter Bartolo Colon, while Kolton Wong is 4 for 9.
Wong is 8 for 24 with six runs in five games against the Mets this year.
Colon (9-7, 4.46) had his worst performance of the season against the Cardinals on May 20, allowing nine runs and 11 hits -- two homers -- in 4 1/3 innings of a 9-0 home defeat.
He had been 4-0 with a 2.77 ERA over his first six starts against St. Louis.
The right-hander has lost four straight road games behind a 5.40 ERA, giving up three runs and 10 hits in six innings of a 3-0 loss at San Francisco on July 7 in his final start before the break.
The Mets had their four-game winning streak snapped Friday despite Curtis Granderson's fifth leadoff homer of the season.
"We battled our tails off till the very last strike," said Noah Syndergaard, who allowed two runs in seven innings. "We all knew how important it was to come out for the second half on a good streak. We just came up a little short."
Daniel Murphy is mired in a 3-for-23 slump over the last six games. He's 1 for 12 in the past three at St. Louis after hitting .385 in his first 14 there.
Wilmer Flores is 3 for 21 against the Cardinals this season. The shortstop is hitting .357 (15 for 42) in his last 11 games despite Friday's 0-for-4 effort.
