Wilson Ramos and J.D. Davis had back-to-back RBI hits in the first inning Friday night for the visiting New York Mets, who never trailed but needed to survive a late comeback by the St. Louis Cardinals before earning a 5-4 win.

The Mets, who won hours after placing reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom on the injured list with a sore pitching elbow, snapped a two-game losing streak. The Cardinals have lost three of four.

St. Louis starter Adam Wainwright (1-2) retired the first two batters of the game before giving up a double to Robinson Cano, who had a season-high three hits. Michael Conforto walked, after which Ramos singled home Cano before Davis doubled to score Conforto.

Cano extended the Mets' lead to 3-0 with an RBI single in the second. Ramos added a run-scoring groundout in the fourth before the Cardinals began inching back in the bottom of the inning, when Jose Martinez homered off Jason Vargas.

Pete Alonso launched a long home run in the top of the sixth to extend the Mets' lead to 5-1. The Cardinals cut the gap in half in the bottom half when pinch hitter Lane Thomas hit a two-run homer in his first big league plate appearance.

Thomas became the 10th St. Louis player to homer in his first plate appearance and the first since Paul DeJong on May 28, 2017.

The Cardinals nearly tied the score in the eighth. Yadier Molina doubled with one out and scored after third baseman Davis overthrew first base on an infield single by Dexter Fowler, cutting the deficit to 5-4. After Kolten Wong walked, Robert Gsellman entered for the Mets and wriggled out of the jam by retiring Jedd Gyorko and Matt Carpenter.

Seth Lugo (1-0), the first of five Mets relievers, earned the win despite allowing two runs in two innings. Edwin Diaz allowed a pair of baserunners before retiring Molina on a lineout to close out his seventh save.

Alonso, Davis and Juan Lagares all had two hits apiece for New York.

Martinez had three hits for the Cardinals while Carpenter and Fowler had two each. Marcell Ozuna went 0-for-4 as his streak of games with a home run was snapped at four.

Vargas allowed one run on three hits and three walks while striking out three over four innings. He lowered his ERA from 14.21 to 9.58.

Wainwright yielded four runs on eight hits and three walks while striking out three over three-plus innings.

--Field Level Media