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The Mets defeated the Cardinals tonight by the score of 8-2 at Citifield.

Jon Niese was solid tonight. His line was 6 IP 8 Hits 2 BB 1K and 1ER. His 8 Hits were scattered over 6 Innings. He was really only in trouble twice. In the first, he gave up 1 run on 3 hits. None of the 3 hits were hit all that hard. Then in the 6th he left with the bases loaded after he walked his only two hitters of the night and another reached base on a David Wright throwing error. However, Manny Acosta was able to come on and bail him out without allowing a run to score. Niese improved to 7-4 and lowered his ERA to 3.43.

Jeff Francouer who was playing for the injured Jason Bay (concussion) came through in a big way tonight. After he had a horrible at-bat in the 2nd with a man on third and one out, he came up in the 4th with two on and one out. He then took a hanging Adam Wainwright curveball and deposited it into the Left Center field crowd for a huge 3 run HR giving the Mets a 3 run lead.

The Mets then added 2 runs in the 5th as they patched together a few hits off Wainwright which was his final inning of the night.

Then in the 6th Jose Reyes connected for his 7th HR of the year, a 2 run shot into the Pepsi Porch to score the Mets 7th and 8th runs of the game.

Carlos Beltran went 2-3 with an RBI. Ironically both hits came off of Adam Wainwright. Yes! that Adam Wainwright!

This looked like a totally different team that went 2-9 on that disasterous road trip. Tonight they put together a total team effort. Everyone contributed in this win. The Starter Niese was very good and when he got into trouble the bullpen came in and bailed him out. Manny Acosta pitched well, but when he got into trouble in the 8th, Valdes came in and got a huge double play. This is exactly what the Mets needed tonight. A solid W.

Tomorrow the Mets look to build on this win when their ace LHP Johan Santana takes the mound against STL at 7:10PM. I will be at Citifield tomorrow night with live updates via twitter (nysportsfreak).