Cardinals 10, Mets 4: Carlos Beltran homered and drove in a season-high four runs as St. Louis sent visiting New York to its fifth consecutive loss.

Beltran collected three hits while Jon Jay also homered and tallied two hits to back John Gast (1-0), who allowed four runs and six hits over six innings in his major-league debut. Beltran, Jay and Pete Kozma all scored twice and Allen Craig had two RBIs to power the Cardinals to their 11th win in 13 games.

St. Louis wore out Dillon Gee (2-5) quickly, reaching him for three runs apiece in the first and third innings before the right-hander departed after 90 pitches through four frames.

Matt Holliday opened the scoring with an RBI double and Craig followed with a hard-hit single up the middle that pushed across a pair of runs. Gee stranded two baserunners in the second, but yielded run-scoring singles in the third to Kozma, Matt Carpenter and Beltran as St. Louis raced out to a 6-0 lead.

Reliever Robert Carson fared no better, issuing a pair of walks to open the fifth before leaving a fastball in the middle of the plate for Beltran, who launched his team-leading 10th homer. The Mets scored all four of their runs in the sixth – capped by a home run from Marlon Byrd – and Jay completed the scoring with his solo shot.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Gast became the first Cardinals left-hander to make his debut as a starter since Rick Ankiel did so for St. Louis on Aug. 23, 1999. Ankiel, who made the transition to the outfield following the 2004 season, signed with New York as a free agent Monday. … The Mets scored at least four runs for the first time in eight games. … Gee, who allowed six runs (five earned), has surrendered at least four earned runs in five of his eight starts.