Cardinals back Dustin May, bullpen's scoreless efforts with seven runs in win over Mets

Daniel Guerrero, St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Jun 9, 2026

Published in Baseball

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NEW YORK — Dustin May continued his response to a rugged start to the year Tuesday with arguably his most effective outing as a Cardinal.

May helped lead the Cardinals to a series-opening win over the New York Mets with six scoreless innings and six strikeouts that provided distance and stability in a 7-0 win at Citi Field. The outing marked May's first scoreless start as a Cardinal and shrunk his season ERA to 4.21 after it sat above 15.00 following his first two starts.

The right-hander had 70 of the 101 pitches he threw go for strikes. He threw a first-pitch strike in 16 of 22 at-bats and issued one walk as he completed six innings for the eighth time since lasting 3 1/3 innings in an April 4 start.

May benefited from a double play in the third inning started by Alec Burleson and a basket catch in center field from the returning Nathan Church to end the fourth with runners on first and second base.

His scoreless work was carried on by two scoreless frames from Justin Bruihl. Right-hander Matt Svanson provided a scoreless ninth inning to complete the Cardinals' third shutout of the year and first since May 8.

The pitching staff was backed by a Cardinals lineup that produced six runs against Mets starter Freddy Peralta and another one off reliever Joey Gerber.

The Cardinals (36-28) produced four runs in the third inning of Peralta with RBIs hits coming from JJ Wetherholt and Jordan Walker. They tacked on another two runs in the fifth on Burleson's homer and added one more in the seventh on a double by Burleson.

The win extends the Cardinals' winning streak to five games.

Producing vs. Peralta

After all the Cardinals could do through the first two innings was put one runner on base, it was the two hitters slotted at the bottom of their lineup who set the stage for a four-run frame.

In their four-run third inning, the Cardinals got two runners on with a walk Nolan Gorman drew on four pitches from Peralta that missed well out of the strike zone and a double from Church on the sixth fastball he saw in his at-bat.

Church’s double gave the Cardinals their first hit and put two runners in scoring position with leadoff hitter Wetherholt looming.

The leadoff man kept the lineup moving.

On the first pitch he saw, Wetherholt lined a single to the right-center field gap that scored two runs. Behind him, Ivan Herrera was hit by a pitch for the second time on the night, and Walker doubled to score a run and, once again, give the Cardinals two runners in scoring position.

Risky run

With their first three runs coming on hits from Wetherholt and Walker, the Cardinals’ fourth run of the game came on a close play at the plate on a ball that didn’t leave the infield.

Standing on third base with one out, Lars Nootbaar batting and the Mets infield playing in, Herrera managed to scamper home on Nootbaar’s ground out to first base. Herrera did not break for home plate on contact. Instead, Herrera’s break for home came after second baseman Marcus Semien fielded the grounder and threw over to first baseman Jared Young to record the out on Nootbaar.

Herrera had to perform a swim move as he dove into home plate for him to avoid the tag from catcher Francisco Alvarez, which scored the Cardinals’ fourth run.

Burly’s first ball in play

Unable to do much in his first two at-bats, Burleson made the first ball he put in play Tuesday night count.

A strikeout victim of Peralta in the first and third innings, Burleson belted a two-run homer off Peralta in the fifth that extended the Cardinals’ lead to 6-0.

Burleson struck out in the first inning after whiffing on back-to-back fastballs to end a five-pitch battle that began with the utility Silver Slugger ahead 2-0 in the count. His strikeout in the third ended on five pitches but came without seeing a fastball, as Peralta fed him three change-ups with two curveballs stuffed in between the second and third off-speed offerings.

In his third at-bat vs. Peralta, Burleson saw a curveball and change-up miss the strike zone and took a curveball on the outer half of the plate for strike one. He was offered a second curveball in a similar location and sent it 378 feet to left field.

Spin cycle snag

An inning-ending out that left the Mets with runners on first and second base required some twisting and turning from Church in center field.

On a ball Semien stung to center field with a 101 mph exit velocity, Church broke toward the warning track immediately. He began his path to track the ball with his head looking over his left shoulder and then whipped his head around to look over his right shoulder as he searched for the ball in New York night sky.

Before he reached the warning track, Church looked back over his left shoulder, slowed his momentum and made a hip-high basket catch steps in front of the center-field wall.

The catch left May with his hands over his head in what appeared to be a sigh of relief.

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