NEW YORK -- For a team thats historically been known for pitching, speed and defense, these St. Louis Cardinals sure are hitting a lot of home runs lately.Especially Jedd Gyorko.Gyorko connected again, launching a two-run drive off Noah Syndergaard that sent the Cardinals over the New York Mets 3-2 Tuesday in the first game of a doubleheader.Gyorko homered for the sixth time in eight games, giving him 13 this season.Hes amazing. Hes doing a great job, manager Mike Matheny said. Hes an interesting player. I dont think people realize how good he is.The Cardinals lead the NL in home runs with 137, matching last years total. The last time they led the league was 1998, the Elias Sports Bureau said, when Mark McGwire hit 70 of their 223.No one on the Cardinals is among the league leaders in home runs, but eight players have reached double digits.We have a lot of guys with 20-plus potential, Matheny said. Not every team can say that.St. Louis has homered in 16 straight games, its best streak since a team-record 19-game string in 2006.The Mets played at home for the first time since the All-Star break and lost in a matchup of NL wild-card contenders. Citi Field was nearly empty at the start, a day after a rainout forced the twinbill.New York lost despite throwing out three runners on the bases and manager Terry Collins winning a pair of replay challenges. The Mets have alternated wins and losses for the last 11 games.I dont know how many times I got to say it, this is crunch time, Collins said. Say whatever you want, this is the time where we got to win games, string them together, win eight out of 10.Carlos Martinez (10-6) gave up a two-run homer to Rene Rivera and left after the fifth inning with a 3-2 lead. Three relievers finished, with Seung Hwan Oh getting his fifth save in six chances.Curtis Granderson led off the Mets ninth with a single but was thrown out trying to tag up on Yoenis Cespedes drive that Tommy Pham caught in deep center field.Syndergaard (9-5) has won only one of his last five starts. The All-Star had a tough sequence in the second -- he got hit in the lower right leg by Phams one-hop single to load the bases, then made a wild, off-balance throw home on Martinezs comebacker to let a run score.Gyorko was hitless in his previous 10 at-bats when he connected in the third.The Cardinals opened a 10-game trip that also takes them to Miami and Cincinnati. They arrived at their New York hotel around 8:30 a.m. Monday after plane trouble, and the rainout gave them some much-needed rest.This was the Cardinals second doubleheader in a week, and their first against the Mets since 1999.26TH MANThe Cardinals recalled RHP Sam Tuivailala as the 26th player for the second game. Hes made three relief appearances for St. Louis this year. The Mets brought up 27-year-old lefty Josh Smoker -- hes made 43 relief appearance for Triple-A Las Vegas, and has never been in the majors.UP NEXTCardinals: LHP Jaime Garcia (7-6, 3.98) pitches Game 2. He is 2-1 with a 1.29 ERA in five career starts against the Mets. Thats his lowest ERA vs. any opponent.Mets: RHP Bartolo Colon (8-5, 3.48) faces the Cardinals in the second game. He went 0-2 with a 15.58 ERA against them last year. Cheap Custom Packers Jersey . He says so-called TRT is only one problem and he wants to go even further than the ban. "Its about time," St-Pierre told reporters at a promotional event in Montreal on Friday. "I think its a good thing. Authentic Custom Packers Jersey . Vettel was 0.168 seconds faster than Red Bull teammate Mark Webber around the Suzuka circuit. Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg was two tenths of a second off Vettel. "The car balance is decent, but I think we can still improve," Vettel said. http://www.custompackersjersey.com/custom-rashan-gary-jersey-large-72r.html . "I wrote 36 on my sheet at the beginning of the game," the Cincinnati coach said, referring the yard line the ball would need to be snapped from. Custom Packers T-shirts . Here are his mid-season NBA awards. MVP: (KEVIN DURANT-Thunder) - Has been sensational this season and more importantly, the most consistent player in the league. Considering that his team has been without star guard Russell Westbrook and with the free agent departure of sharpshooter Kevin Martin, hes had to carry the majority of the load to not only keep his team afloat but more importantly, at an elite level. Cheap Packers Jerseys . Duchene scored two goals and had an assist, helping the Colorado Avalanche beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-2 on Friday night to match the best 10-game start in team history. LAS VEGAS -- Sergey Kovalev kept coming, and Andre Ward never stopped battling. With the crowd roaring in approval, they put on a fight that lived up to its advance billing.In the end, Ward won a narrow decision Saturday night to take Kovalevs light heavyweight titles in a battle between two unbeaten boxers.Ward survived a second-round knockdown and relentless pressure from Kovalev, doing just enough to win by a point on all three ringside scorecards. He remained unbeaten in his last 20 years in the ring, but it wasnt without some moments of worry.This was a beautiful thing. We did it baby, Ward said. Im a five-time world champion in two different weight classes. Man, its amazing.All three ringside judges had Ward winning 114-113. The Associated Press had Kovalev ahead 116-111.It was a fight of my life, Kovalev said. I am disappointed in the judges decision. He got maybe a few rounds, I agree with that. I kept control. I lost maybe three rounds the whole fight.Ward won all of the last six rounds on two scorecards, and five of six on a third. He won the final round on two of the scorecards.Kovalev knocked down Ward in the second round and chased him around the ring much of the early part of the fight. But Ward dug deep and managed to land some good punches of his own in a fight that built to a climax in the later rounds.The crowd of 13,310 at the T-Mobile Arena was on its feet in the late rounds as the two fighters went after each other, neither giving an inch. In the end, the judges favored Wards counter punching against the aggressive style of Kovalev.We were a little careless with that knockdown in the second round, said Wards trainer, Virgil Hunter. But we landed the cleaner punchesBoth fighters were unbeaten with almost identical records. Ward was 30-0 with 15 knockouts and Kovalev was 30-0-1 with 26 knockouts.It was a classic boxer versus puncher battle, and it looked like the puncher would prevail as Kovalev won the early rounds. But Ward kept punching and landed some good shots of his own in the middle rounds, and there were plenty of close rounds that could have gone either way.I knew it was going to be a tough fight -- it was the 1st time in my career I was dropped, Ward said. He did everything I expected him to do. He started to fight like I expected.Kovalevs promoter, Kathy Duva, said she would use the rrematch clause in the contract for a second fight.ddddddddddddHe won the first six rounds so I dont know how he could lose a decision, Duva said. Im happy we had a great fight. Boxing needed a great fight.The fight was billed as a matchup of U.S. and Russian fighters, with the 2004 Olympic gold medalist Ward against a Russian who lives mostly in the Los Angeles area. It was a classic matchup of puncher versus boxer, and for the early part of the fight the puncher was winning.Kovalev flashed his power early, hitting Ward with a left hand midway through the first round that briefly wobbled Wards legs. Ward grabbed and held on and finished the round jabbing at the Russian, but the tone of the fight was set early.Midway through the second round, both fighters threw right hands but it was Kovalevs that landed flush to the side of Wards head, putting him on the canvas. He got up quickly and smiles as if not hurt but needed all of his supreme defensive skills to make it out of the round.Ward seemed unwilling to go inside after that, moving backward and trying to land jabs to control the action. But he abandoned the style that had served him so well over the years and fought moving backward, throwing only one punch at a time, as Kovalev constantly pressed the attack.Ward did have some moments, including the seventh round when he landed a good left that snapped Kovalevs head back.Ward earned $5 million, while Kovalev was paid $2 million plus a percentage of pay-per-view.On the undercard, two-time Olympic gold medalist Claressa Shields made her pro debut a successful one, winning a decision over Franchon Crews in a four-round super middleweight fight.Shields came back from a slow first round to land the bigger punches in an entertaining fight. Both women, fighting without headgear for the first time, traded punches freely but Shields won all over four rounds on the scorecards of the three ringside judges.Shields, who became the first American woman to win a gold medal in the 2012 Olympics and added another in Rio in August, had vowed to be impressive in her first pro fight. And she wasnt shy about trading punches with Franchon, a Baltimore fighter who lost to her during the Olympic trials in 2012. ' ' '