By ,
Published May 03, 2016
(SportsNetwork.com) - Bartolo Colon tries to become the majors' first seven- game winner on Wednesday when the New York Mets resume a four-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals at Citi Field.
Colon was denied his seventh win on Friday, as he was banged around by the lowly Milwaukee Brewers for six runs (5 earned) in five innings to drop him to 6-2 on the year to go along with a 3.86 ERA.
"When he misses in on the plate like he did tonight, he's going to get hit," Mets manager Terry Collins said.
However, he still delivered five more innings without a walk to move within seven outs of Bret Saberhagen's 21-year-old franchise record of 47 2/3 innings.
The 42-year-old right-hander has walked just one of the 207 batters he has faced this season.
Colon has faced the Cardinals six times and is 4-0 against them with a 2.77 ERA.
St. Louis, meanwhile, will counter with young righty Carlos Martinez, who has lost his last two starts. After getting hammered by Pittsburgh two starts ago, Martinez pitched well against Detroit on Friday, allowing a pair of runs in five innings, but absorbed the loss to fall to 3-2 with a 4.73 ERA.
He had given up seven runs in 5 1/3 innings of his previous effort.
Martinez has yet to allow a run to the Mets in 5 1/3 frames of three appearances (1 start).
St. Louis rebounded from a 14-inning loss in Monday's opener to even the series on Tuesday, as Randal Grichuk went 3-for-5 with three RBI and a run scored to lead the Cardinals to a 10-2 win. Mark Reynolds homered among his three hits and Kolten Wong had two RBI for St. Louis, which had lost two of three to Detroit over the weekend.
Michael Wacha (6-0) remained unbeaten after he scattered four hits and allowed two runs with five strikeouts over seven innings.
"I was pretty happy," Wacha said. "Our guys were playing great defense behind me and then our offense just exploded."
Daniel Murphy was the only Met to hurt Wacha, smacking a home run in the fourth to account for New York's offense.
Jon Niese (3-4) was roughed up for eight runs on 11 hits over five innings in the loss.
"I thought in the bullpen I was pretty good," Niese said. "When I got out there today I just didn't seem to find it."
The Mets won four of seven from the Cards last season.
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/colon-goes-for-win-no-7-vs-cardinals