It was one of those Tuesday nights where you flip between MLB.tv windows and every screen has a Mets or Pirates fan with their head in their hands. The Dodgers were grinding out a tight one in Pittsburgh, the Cardinals were running the Mets out of the building in St. Louis, and by the time the dust settled both NL Central hosts and the Mets were left holding the bag.
Start in Pittsburgh, where Ryan Ward did what Ryan Ward has quietly been doing — turning a Dodgers lineup with no shortage of names into something genuinely dangerous from the bottom half. Up 2-1 in the 6th, Ward got hold of a Mlodzinski offering with the bases juiced and absolutely wrecked it: 107.6 off the bat, 23-degree launch, 385 feet of damage. 2-1 game became 6-1 in about four seconds.
Ward's grand slam off Mlodzinski cracking the game open at PNC Park.
That's grand slam No. 3 of the season for Ward, which is the kind of stat line that gets you a permanent residence in the 6-hole and a fan club back in LA. The Pirates, for their part, can't get a break — they had Mlodzinski cruising and one swing flipped the whole vibe of the night.
Meanwhile, 600 miles west, the Mets were getting taken behind the woodshed. David Peterson — whom Tank Fleming has been begging to be removed from the rotation for what feels like a month — got rocked, and Jordan Walker hammered the exclamation point. 107.3 mph exit velo, 401 feet, into the Busch Stadium night to make it 7-0 Cardinals in the 4th.
Walker's 401-foot blast pushing the Cardinals lead to seven — a literal touchdown margin on the Mets.
You could hear the Mets fanbase splinter in real time. Tank wasn't subtle about who he blamed.
Frank Fleming voicing what every Mets fan was screaming at the TV.
Can this be the end of David Petersuck please
That's the night in a nutshell: a Dodgers lineup that doesn't need any help got help anyway, a Cardinals team that's been searching for power found a 401-foot answer, and two fanbases that've spent the spring telling themselves it'll get better got reminded that sometimes it just doesn't. StoolBaseball had a field day — and Walker and Ward made sure of it.