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The St. Louis Cardinals rebounded from a rough road trip by beating the New York Mets, 5-4, on Monday afternoon. The Mets has lost five of their past six games, and the Cardinals now have a 1.0 game lead over the L.A. Dodgers for the final National League Wild Card spot.
The Cardinals built a 4-0 lead thanks to a couple of Matt Carpenter sacrifices and a Skip Schumaker home run in the fourth inning. Starting pitcher Joe Kelly was near-perfect through six innings until allowing a two-run homer to Kelly Shoppach in the top of the seventh.
Allen Craig would add a needed insurance run in the bottom of the seventh with a run-scoring single, as the Mets' Daniel Murphy cut the lead to 5-4 the next inning thanks to a two-run homer against Mitchell Boggs.
The Mets would threaten again in the ninth inning with a two-out walk by Ruben Tejada before Jason Motte got Daniel Murphy to fly out to end the game.
The Cardinals take on the Mets again on Tuesday night, with the first pitch set for 7:15 p.m. CT. Coverage will be on Fox Sports Missouri.
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