The New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals continued their three-game series on Tuesday at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.  After taking their first series over the Pirates, they were looking to secure their second straight series win on Tuesday after a 4-2 win on Monday.

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Right-handed pitcher Kodai Senga got the ball for his first start of 2026 against Cardinals righty Andrew Pallante. However, despite a strong start from Senga, the Mets’ bats were shut out in a 3-0 loss on Tuesday.

Both Senga and Pallante gave up a single and a walk in their opening inning. While Pallante settled in immediately after that, the Cardinals got to Senga first with two runs in the third in his only rough inning. He gave up three straight hits in the third, including an RBI double to Ivan Herrera that scored two and put the Cardinals on top of the Mets 2-0.

After the third inning, Senga settled down and went on to have a huge performance, keeping the Mets in it through six innings. However, the Mets’ offense didn’t give him any support. The Mets’ only hits came on a double and single from Juan Soto and a single by Jared Young.

Senga’s day was done after six innings. He gave up just two earned runs on four hits, three walks, and struck out nine. Senga threw 92 pitches (56 for strikes). What was especially encouraging for Senga was that he was touching 98-99 mph on his fastball, even in his final inning of work.

The Mets then handed the ball to Lovelady, who got into immediate trouble. He gave up a lead-off solo home run to Ramon Urias that extended the Cardinals’ lead to 3-0 over the Mets.

Lovelady finished out the night well, but the Mets’ bats never came to life as the Mets (3-2) dropped game two to the Cardinals (3-2) 3-0, suffering their first shutout of the year.

Player of the Game

Tuesday’s player of the game is Kodai Senga, as he gave up just the one RBI double in the third, but struck out nine in a great outing for the right-hander in his first of the season.

On Deck

After failing to secure the series win on Tuesday, the Mets will look to win the series on Wednesday when they finish out their series against the Cardinals. Wednesday will feature right-handed pitcher Freddy Peralta (1-0, 7.20 ERA) on the mound for the Mets against left-handed pitcher Matthew Liberatore (0-0, 1.80 ERA) on the mound for St. Louis.

First pitch on Wednesday is slated for 1:15 p.m. Gary Cohen will seemingly call the game on SNY by himself, because Keith Hernandez will fly back to New York to get his back troubles checked out.