By the time Harrison Bader stepped into the Roger Dean Stadium batter’s box for his final plate appearance in what would become Thursday’s tie with the Mets, the Cardinals’ starting center fielder wore a filthy uniform and a rising welt. He had reached base three times in three dramatically different ways, then punctuated each arrival with a steal the Mets saw coming yet could not stop.
Facing once-feared and still-formidable reliever Jeurys Familia in the eighth inning, Bader fell behind. There was a strike he did not like, and another he could not hit. Last season, this situation screamed strikeout.