Maine, bullpen serve up homers as Cards beat Mets, 5-3

ST. LOUIS - Even in victory, a 20-inning game tends to leave a few marks, and the Mets arrived at Busch Stadium on Sunday a different team from the one that left it after the 6-hour, 53-minute marathon against the Cardinals on Saturday.

Mike Jacobs had been designated for assignment, the baseball equivalent of limbo. Tobi Stoner had been rushed from Buffalo to St. Louis to help a tired bullpen. Jason Bay was removed from the lineup. Utilityman Frank Catalanotto was the cleanup hitter. "Unbelievable, huh?" he said.

Then again, after Saturday's classic, anything was possible. But a miracle from John Maine was too much to ask.

Maine told Jerry Manuel before his start that he was willing to throw 150 pitches in order to figure things out and spare the bullpen. But he made it only to 115 through five innings, which is when he served up a tying three-run homer to Colby Rasmus.

Then, with two outs in the eighth, Ryota Igarashi replaced Pedro Feliciano and served up a two-run homer to Ryan Ludwick on his first pitch - and the Mets ended their trip on a sour note with a 5-3 loss.

It marked the Mets' fourth straight series loss and the first time they have opened a season with such a streak since 1997. Despite heading home at 4-8, Manuel could see a few reasons for optimism - as well as concern.

"I think pitching-wise, which is very key for us, I think we'll be OK," he said. "I think offensively, we've got to take it up a notch. It's been difficult to put instant runs on the board if you don't have any extra-base power."

The Mets took a 3-0 lead in the second when Angel Pagan's two-run single snapped the team's 0-for-11 skid with the bases loaded and Adam Wainwright - backing up the plate on the play - threw the ball down the rightfield line, allowing Gary Matthews Jr. to score.

But Wainwright, making his first start against the Mets since freezing Carlos Beltran to end Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS, shut them down from that point. He allowed one hit in the next seven innings and struck out nine in a four-hitter.

"If you look at his track record, he gets better as the game goes on," Jeff Francoeur said. "We held him off for as long as we could. Our guys have done so much. It's hard to expect them to go out there and keep holding them. They were tired."

The Mets' rotation had allowed one run in its previous 201/3 innings before Maine took the mound. His velocity was up, with a fastball that consistently hit 90 mph. But by the end of the fourth, he had thrown 98 pitches, and the Mets got burned when they tried to sneak him past the fifth. After a walk to Ludwick and a single by Matt Holliday, Rasmus hit a three-run shot.

"I think it's a step in the right direction," Maine said. "It's frustrating because it's never been this hard before. I'm trying to get back to normal and it's just going to take a little more work."

Manuel seems willing to give him that time. Before the game, he called Maine a "much-needed piece" for the Mets, and he's ready to leave him in the puzzle. "He was better," he said. "He still had a little traffic out there, but he battled for the most part."