Mets keep rallying, beat Cards on Francisco Lindor's homer

Francisco Lindor led off the bottom of the ninth with a long home run for the New York Mets, who came back to beat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-4 on Friday night.

The Mets have won the first two games of the four-game series and four of six overall. The Cardinals have lost three of four.

St. Louis' Brendan Donovan tied the game by homering to lead off the ninth against Huascar Brazoban (1-0) before Lindor hit the third pitch he saw from Ryan Fernandez (0-2) into the second deck in right field. It was Lindor's only hit of the night and the 250th homer of his career.

Lindor dropped his bat and stared into the Mets dugout before beginning his trot.

It was Lindor's second walk-off RBI of the season. He lofted a ninth-inning sacrifice fly in a 3-2 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on April 5.

The Mets briefly took the lead in the eighth, when Luis Torrens laced a one-out RBI double. New York had tied the game twice earlier. In their two-run rally in the fifth, Tyrone Taylor (triple) and Juan Soto (single) had RBIs, and in the sixth, when Mark Vientos homered for the second time in as many nights.

Pete Alonso tripled and drew two walks for the Mets.

Nolan Arenado had two hits for the Cardinals, including a run-scoring single in the top of the sixth to give St. Louis a 3-2 lead. Pedro Pages and Jordan Walker staked the Cardinals to a 2-0 lead with RBI singles in the second and fourth, respectively.

Donovan finished 2-for-4 and extended his hitting streak to a career-high 14 games.

Mets starter David Peterson gave up three runs on seven hits and no walks while striking out nine over 5 1/3 innings. Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas allowed two runs on five hits and two walks while striking out one over 4 2/3 innings.

--Field Level Media