ST. LOUIS _ Matt Harvey the reliever so far looks a lot like Matt Harvey the starter.
The former Mets ace allowed one run in two innings Tuesday, pitching for the first time since being demoted to the bullpen over the weekend. The Mets' bats picked him up with two late runs for a 6-5, win against the Cardinals.
Jay Bruce's solo home run in the 10th inning put them ahead for good. The Mets tied it in the eighth an Adrian Gonzalez's sacrifice fly that scored Todd Frazier, the first earned run allowed by Jordan Hicks, the Cardinals' flame-throwing rookie reliever.
Harvey tossed the fifth and sixth innings, entering what was suddenly a high-leverage situation. He began to warm up as Zack Wheeler struggled through the fourth, and continued to do so when the Mets batted trailing by three runs. When Yoenis Cespedes' three-run home run tied it in the fifth, manager Mickey Callaway stuck with Harvey as his first choice out of the bullpen in the bottom of the inning.
Callaway said before the game that he wasn't sure how he would use Harvey, but he preferred to do it soon.
"Any time a guy gets moved to the 'pen or gets called up, you want to get them as soon as possible, get their feet wet," Callaway said. "It'll just be as the game dictates."
Harvey retired his first two batters, but consecutive hard-hit doubles from Dexter Fowler and Paul DeJong but the Cardinals ahead. Both hits came on fastballs over the middle of the plate when Harvey was behind in the count.
In his second inning, Harvey walked a batter but escaped without allowing another run.
The run allowed by Harvey was the only one in the bullpen's six innings.
Harvey threw 35 pitches (20 strikes), and was consistently hitting 94 mph with his fastball. That's a marginal improvement over his 93-mph average in four starts this month.
Excepting a piggyback start behind Noah Syndergaard last September, the relief appearance was Harvey's first since Aug. 2, 2009, when he played for the Chatham Anglers of the Cape Cod Baseball League after his sophomore season at the University of North Carolina.
Wheeler got hit hard in the worst of his three major-league starts this season. He lasted four innings, allowing four runs, six hits and two walks. He struck out three. St. Louis scored twice in the first (Tommy Pham, two-run homer to center) and twice in the fourth (Kolten Wong RBI double, Luke Weaver RBI single).
Weaver's hit was the first time this season (43 plate appearances) that an opposing pitcher reached base safely against the Mets.
Wheeler gave up seven batted balls hit faster than 100 mph. Four turned into outs.
Wheeler's exit spurred a game-tying rally for the Mets. Pinch-hitting for Wheeler in the fifth, Wilmer Flores drew a walk. After Michael Conforto walked _ his second of the game _ Cespedes crushed a three-run home run to the second deck in left to even the score at 4.
Cardinals left fielder Marcell Ozuna didn't take a step, but did turn to see where it landed: "Big Mac Land," famous for where former St. Louis slugger Mark McGwire so often hit them.
Cespedes, who has been mired in a weeks-long slump and has struck out in more than 40 percent of his plate appearances, finished 1-for-5 with two strikeouts.
The Cardinals gifted the Mets one run _ then robbed them of another _ in the second. Ozuna, who before the game was presented with the Gold Glove award he won as a Marlin last season, misplayed a single into a triple for Bruce. Todd Frazier scored from first.
But the Mets couldn't drive in Bruce with nobody out. Gonzalez's hard grounder up the middle turned into an out thanks to Wong's diving stop at second.
