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The St. Louis Cardinals rallied for eight runs in the final three innings to spoil a Mets’ comeback Monday night and hand the team a 12-7 extra-inning loss at Citi Field.
Albert Pujols killed the Mets with a 4-for-5 night including a 10th inning grand slam, one of his two home runs on the night.
Brian Stokes got the first out in the tenth, but Rick Ankiel reached base on a slow-rolling infield single off Pedro Feliciano, Julio Lugo lined a single to right and Colby Rasmus walked to load the bases. Feliciano got the second out before handing the ball to Sean Green, who hit Mark DeRosa with his first pitch to force in the winning run.
Pujols followed by launching an 0-2 hanging slider over the left center field wall.
The Mets took a 5-4 lead in the fifth inning after Luis Castillo and David Wright began the inning with back-to-back singles and Gary Sheffield drove them home on a double to deep left center field. Daniel Murphy doubled to the same gap to bring home Sheffield. Pagan later singled home Murphy with a dribbler up the middle to make it 7-4.
But the Cardinals narrowed the gap to 7-5 in the eighth on a solo shot by Pujols, and Ankiel and Lugo pounced on Francisco Rodriguez with back-to-back doubles in the ninth. Skip Schumaker tied the game on a single that scored Lugo.
