Cardinals  0    Mets  11

St. Louis Cardinals (40-32) at New York Mets (35-34), 7:10 p.m.

Sports Network | June 24, 2009

(Sports Network) - The St. Louis Cardinals got a huge lift from starting pitcher Joel Pineiro in last night's win over the New York Mets and hope to receive the same out of Brad Thompson, who will take the mound in Wednesday's third test of a four-game series at Citi Field.

Pineiro recorded his second shutout of the season and fifth of his career in Tuesday's 3-0 victory, and also went 2-for-4 at the plate with a double and a run scored. The right-hander was more impressive on the mound, however, as he forced 22 ground balls, allowed two hits, struck out one and walked a batter.

"You know you're going to get a lot of ground balls," Cardinals second baseman Skip Schumaker said on the team's site. "Pineiro's sinker, when it's on, it's nasty. And he showed how effective that sinker can be tonight."

Albert Pujols drove in a pair of runs while Schumaker and Brendan Ryan both ended with two hits for the Cardinals, who have won four of five and nine of their last 13 games. They are also now two games ahead of Milwaukee and 3 1/2 games in front of the Chicago Cubs for the NL Central lead.

St. Louis also beat the Mets for the fourth time in five tries this season and won for the first time at Citi Field in a game that was delayed by rain for 52 minutes in the top of the third inning. The Cardinals, who are 4-1 on a seven- game road trip, swept the Mets in three games from April 21-24 at Busch Stadium and have won five of the last seven meetings between the teams.

Meanwhile, Thompson will try to extend his personal winning streak to three straight starts tonight. Thompson has won consecutive road outings and started the win streak with a 3-1 win at Cleveland on June 13. He allowed one unearned run and three hits in six innings against the Tribe.

In his most recent start Friday at Kansas City, Thompson received a lot of run support in a 10-5 victory and gave up four runs over seven innings of work to improve to 2-2 with a 3.89 earned run average in 13 games (4 starts) this season.

The right-hander is 2-0 with a 3.38 ERA in nine career relief appearances against the Mets, and may go back to the bullpen when injured starter Kyle Lohse returns from the disabled list.

The struggling Mets have dropped three of their last four games after last night's blanking by the Cardinals. Pineiro shut down the New York offense, which got hits from Luis Castillo and Jeremy Reed.

"He's been tough on us," Mets skipper Jerry Manuel said of Pineiro. "He got a lot of outs early in the count. We probably could have done a better job making him get his pitches up."

Livan Hernandez started for New York and was saddled with the loss, surrendering three runs -- two earned -- and eight hits in seven innings of work. He struck out three and walked three batters.

The Mets are now 2 1/2 games behind Philadelphia for the top spot in the NL East standings after the Phillies pounded Tampa Bay Tuesday night. New York is 2-3 on a 10-game homestand and will also host the Yankees on the residency.

Fernando Nieve will try to win his third straight start when he toes the rubber this evening for Manuel's club. Nieve is 2-0 with a 1.84 ERA in three games (2 starts) this season and won his first major-league start since 2006 on June 13 against the Yankees. Nieve held the Bronx Bombers to a pair of runs in 6 2/3 frames of a 6-2 win.

He then defeated Tampa Bay last Friday, allowing just one run in six innings of his team's 5-3 triumph.

Nieve, a right-hander, has made three relief appearances spanning 4 2/3 innings in his career against St. Louis and is 0-0 with a 5.79 earned run average.