Mets top Cardinals behind Griffin Canning's excellent start, Mark Vientos' home run
Mets starting pitcher Griffin Canning delivers against the St. Louis Cardinals during the first inning of an MLB baseball game at Citi Field on Thursday, April 17, 2025. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The pitching again was strong. The slumbering lumber awakened for a bit. The baserunning was aggressive and smart.
The Mets got a little bit of everything on Thursday night as they kicked off a seven-game homestand in style with a 4-1 victory over the Cardinals before 38,246 at Citi Field.
Starter Griffin Canning had his best pitching performance of the season, Mark Vientos hit his first home run of the season and Francisco Lindor had three hits. He also made the smartest play of the game — turning a baserunning mistake into a rundown that allowed an extra run to score in a four-run second inning — as the Mets improved to 12-7.
Canning exemplified why the Mets are winning. He was supposed to be a back-of-the-rotation starter but pitched like an ace against St. Louis, throwing six innings of one-run ball with eight strikeouts. He fanned four in a row in one stretch and three in a row in another as he recognized that his fastball — and not the usual changeups and sliders — would be his best weapon on this night.
“The fastball at the top of the zone to finish off hitters — he got swings and misses,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He’s got strikeouts with that pitch and he kept going at it.”
“Tonight those lefties were 100% selling out for a changeup . . . Just kind of some of the swings that they took right away on changeups,” Canning said. “I feel like tonight is kind of the blueprint of ‘in an ideal world.’ Obviously, it matters the kind of approach that the hitters on their team are taking against me, but tonight is how I want to pitch.”
He allowed only three hits and two walks.
Reed Garrett pitched a scoreless seventh and A.J. Minter a perfect eighth. Edwin Diaz opened the ninth with a five-pitch walk to Nolan Arenado but retired the next three batters to earn his fourth save of the season.
The Mets’ offense has been unremarkable this season, but the pitching staff brought an MLB-best 2.38 ERA into the contest. And though the Mets strung five of their eight hits together in the second inning, the pitching again was the backbone for a win.
“[Canning] has been stellar — I’m happy that we got him on our team,” Vientos said. “He’s been doing his thing and I think the pitching and the bullpen have been lights out. They’ve been a big reason why we’ve been winning ballgames.”
Vientos started the four-run rally with a leadoff home run. He hit a 1-and-0 fastball from Andre Pallante down the rightfield line that just cleared the fence and caromed off the base of the foul pole.
“He’s been hitting the ball hard but not getting the results,” Mendoza had said.
“It’s a good feeling, for sure,” Vientos said. “Just trying to stay positive [and] have good at-bats. It’s easy to stay positive when your team’s winning.”
Starling Marte continued the rally with a one-out double to leftfield and scored on Brett Baty’s two-out single to left. Baty, whose future is uncertain with Jeff McNeil coming back soon from an oblique strain, had two hits and is in a 6-for-17 run.
Tyrone Taylor followed with a single to centerfield and Lindor delivered two runs with the most heads-up play of the game.
He singled to rightfield to drive in Baty but, in his eagerness to get in scoring position, got caught between first and second. He alertly pulled up and began to retreat when the throw went to second, coaxing the Cardinals into a rundown.
As Lindor changed directions, he waved wildly toward Taylor to keep advancing. Taylor scored on a headfirst slide before Lindor was tagged out for a 4-0 lead.
“It was a mistake that turned into something good,” Lindor said. “It just turned into a ‘how do we get Tyrone to home plate?’ Just try to survive as long as I can to try to get Tyrone to score. Tyrone did a fantastic job of reading how aggressive they were towards me and went to the plate.”
Canning originally was scheduled to pitch Wednesday’s series finale in Minnesota but was too ill to make the start. He showed little sign of illness as he threw a season-high 102 pitches.
And as a result, it was the Cardinals who ended the night feeling poorly.
Notes & quotes: The Mets placed Jose Siri on the 10-day injured list with a broken left tibia and optioned Justin Hagenman to Triple-A Syracuse. . . . Catcher Francisco Alvarez, who is coming back from surgery to remove a broken hamate bone in his left wrist, appears to be getting close to returning. He was scheduled to play back-to-back days for Syracuse and Mendoza said, “We will have a conversation after he gets through those two days and see if he needs more at-bats. If he feels like he’s ready to go, then we have a decision.” . . . McNeil was scheduled to play centerfield again on Thursday for Class A Port St. Lucie and then move back to the infield to play back-to-back games with either Syracuse or Double-A Binghamton on Saturday and Sunday.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
