LatinoSportsMVP Albert Pujols does it again -- another LSMVP and a winning hit (Photo: Bill Menzel)

New York- It was a game that looked as if it could be a season changing win for the New York Mets turned out to be another heartbreaking loss in their final at bat. Albert Pujols, who earlier received his LatinoSports MVP award, hit a game-winning RBI single in the 13th inning with two outs to give the Cardinals an 8-7 win. With the loss, the Mets fell to 7.5 games out of the division and 6.5 games out of the wild card spot.

Pedro Feliciano’s control was the undoing for the Mets as he hit Schumaker and walked Felipe Lopez with one out in the 13th.  After a fielder’s choice, the Mets elected to pitch to Pujols rather than put him on with the based loaded and face Matt Holiday.

"We kind of felt that Holliday, at least tonight, was swinging the bat a little better than Albert," Manager Jerry Manuel said. "It was a tough call. We were going to leave the ball away, he'd hit it on the ground some place and hopefully we'd get it. We were playing with fire and we got burned."

The loss sting a bit harder as the Mets were able to survive a very bad outing from Johan Santana. Santana allowed six runs in the 1^st inning to put New York in an early hole. All the runs came with two outs as Matt Holliday and Jaime Garcia provided the big blows with a two-run homer and a two-run single. Felipe Lopez followed with another single as Santana finished off his worst 1^st inning of his career.

Yesterday it was Cards Wainwreight not having it, today it was Santana. (Photo Bill Menzel)

Santana had been brilliant as he has a 3-0 record with a 0.71 ERA in five starts this month for New York, and had not allowed a run in 18 straight innings at Citi Field. While he was able to keep the bullpen fresh for a bit but it was certainly not what the Mets had hoped for.

“He was over the middle of the plate more than usual,” Manuel said. “But he battled back and put up some scoreless innings for us when we needed it.”

The Mets were able to get two of those runs back in the bottom of the 1^st as career minor leaguer Mike Hessman ripped a two run double off the left field wall to give the Mets some life after the rough top of the 1^st to cut it two a 6-2 deficit.

After the Cards got an RBI double from Holliday in the top of the 6^th, Boricua Carlos Beltran hit his first homer of the season in the sixth to get the Mets within 7-3. The Mets staged a dramatic rally in the bottom of the 8^th as they scored four runs to tie the game up at 7.

Angel Pagan started the rally going with two run bomb off Mitchell Boggs to cut the game to 7-5. The Mets would load the bases facing Denny Reyes after Reyes walked Josh Thole on four pitches. Pinch- hitter Ike Davis hit a two-run single to right field with two outs that tied the game. The Mets had a chance to score another run but Luis Castillo grounded out with the bases loaded on a 3-2 pitch.

The Mets hope to win the series today as they will start R.A Dickey against Blake Hawksworth for a 12:10 pm start.

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