NEW YORK - The St. Louis Cardinals did not arrive at their hotel in New York until mid-morning Monday after a flight delay followed a nationally televised night game.
They got a chance to catch up on sleep when their series opener at the New York Mets was rained out and rescheduled as part of a doubleheader starting at 3:10 p.m. today.
St. Louis' 9-6 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Sunday night's ESPN game lasted 3 hours, 49 minutes, and ended shortly before 11 p.m. CDT. The plane taking the Cardinals to New York did not land in St. Louis on time because of weather, causing the team to remain in its clubhouse for several hours.
"I didn't hear the guys barking and complaining, which could have been easy to do," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "So it was impressive. Just you do what you do and show up and get ready to do it again."
When St. Louis first landed, Matheny thought briefly about heading straight to Citi Field.
"We had to come right by," he said.
St. Louis' Carlos Martinez (9-6) and New York's Noah Syndergaard (9-4) were pushed back a day and will start the opener. The Cardinals' Jaime Garcia (7-6) and the Mets' Bartolo Colon (8-5), who had been scheduled to pitch today, will start the second game.
Before the rainout, the Cardinals selected the contract of right-hander Jerome Williams from Memphis, optioned rookie right-hander Mike Mayers to the Triple-A club and transferred right-hander Jordan Walden to the 60-day disabled list.
"Hopefully we don't need Jerome. I'd love our starters to go out there and sail. But the likelihood of us needing some arms down there is pretty high," Matheny said.
Mayers started Sunday and allowed nine runs and eight hits, throwing 62 pitches to get four outs. He became the first pitcher to allow nine or more runs with fewer than two innings pitched in his big league debut since at least 1913.
"He's a tough kid," Matheny said. "You could see as things were kind of unraveling, he just kept going, and he was making pitches in the zone for the most part. He just didn't have his best stuff to put guys away and make the kind of pitches that he wanted to, and I think he got away from his game plan a little bit, which is completely common for not just him but any pitcher that starts to see things snowball."
Matheny spoke with Mayers after the outing.
"I reminded him, too, the fact that, don't forget you started in Double-A this year. That's a big deal, to be able to come in on a team that's right in the middle of things," the manager said.
St. Louis began the night second in the NL Central, 71/2 games behind the Cubs. Chicago acquired closer Aroldis Chapman from the New York Yankees on Monday.
"We're not too concerned with what we can't control," Matheny said. "We can't control until we get to face him, so we'll deal with that then."