The Mets came into Sunday afternoon hoping that Jason Vargas would be able to continue his recent string of success against Dakota Hudson and the Cardinals to eke out a split in this four-game series.
The game got off to a less than auspicious start. After retiring the first batter, Vargas surrendered a walk to Paul DeJong, which was immediately followed by a long two-run blast off the facing of the second deck in left field from Paul Goldschmidt. Vargas retired the following two batters without issue, but the damage was done, as the Cardinals had jumped out to an early 2-0 lead.