Cards take G1 after 'pretty wacky inning'

The Cardinals bashed their way to their 10th win in their last 12 games in Wednesday’s Game 1 victory of a twin bill over the Mets, 4-1, but a wacky game left them without Dylan Carlson, their talented young slugger and a key cog at the top of the lineup. Carlson was out of the starting lineup in the nightcap at Busch Stadium, but he made a pinch-hitting appearance with an RBI single in the fourth inning.

Carlson fouled a 91.9 mph sinker from Mets starter Marcus Stroman off the inside of his shin/ankle in the bottom of the fifth inning and was removed from the game a half-inning later with a right shin contusion. Manager Mike Shildt said that Carlson has been taking a repeated beating off his right leg in recent games and it got a little numb after this last one off his shin.

Carlson’s exit was a continuation in an overall zany Game 1 at Busch Stadium. In the fourth inning, a pair of replay reviews -- including one regarding interpreter Craig Choi visiting starter Kwang Hyun Kim -- pushed the half-inning to the brink of 30 minutes. The Mets loaded the bases with no outs but scratched just a single run across.

“I thought it was not a big deal,” said Kim, whose four-inning performance broke a string of 16 consecutive starts by a Cardinal to go at least five frames. “I tried to say to myself, ‘I should focus even though it's a long inning.’ And that was my approach in the fourth inning today.”

The top of the fourth inning -- nearly 30 minutes played out in its entirety -- featured:

• Crew chief review of Choi visiting Kim with catcher Andrew Knizner

• Knizner catching a foul tip in a sensitive area but staying in the game

• A Nolan Arenado error-turned-tumbling play that required a review for the out

• Only two balls put in play

• Only one Mets run scored despite a bases-loaded, no outs situation

“I turned to [bench coach Oliver Marmol] and I'm like, ‘Man, this is a pretty wacky inning we got working here,” Shildt said.

The Cards' offense, kick-started by a Paul Goldschmidt laser -- square off the Big Mac sign on the second-deck facade in left field -- and continued by a Paul DeJong blast, did enough to do the job, giving the club its sixth straight win.

Goldschmidt’s homer -- 109 mph off the bat -- would have forced the Cardinals to replace the Big Mac sign … had DeJong not already forced the issue two years prior. For DeJong, his fifth-inning blast continued an absolutely torrid start to his career against the Mets, giving him 10 homers in 22 games played against the franchise.

Entering the day, DeJong owned an astounding 1.202 OPS against the Mets in his career. His homer gave him 21 extra-base hits against New York -- the most of any player through his first 22 games against the franchise.

“It's one of those things, I guess everybody owns somebody in this league,” DeJong said. “I'm pretty humble about everything, I just want to do well for my team. I don't have any extra motivation to win. I want to contribute every single at-bat every time I go up there, no matter who it is.”