Jose Reyes’ sacrifice fly in the top of the 20th inning scored Angel Pagan and lifted the New York Mets to a 2-1 victory over the host St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday.

The two teams used 46 players in the 6-hour, 53-minute marathon with St. Louis using two position players among the 10 pitchers it sent to the mound. New York used nine pitchers and only one of its 25 players -- starting pitcher Oliver Perez -- didn’t see action.

The game was scoreless for the first 18 innings. New York’s Jeff Francoeur hit a sacrifice fly in the top of the 19th to score Reyes and St. Louis’ Yadier Molina delivered a two-out single to score Albert Pujols in the bottom of the inning.

Reyes’ game-winning fly ball came against Joe Mather (0-1), an outfielder who pitched the final two innings. Shortstop Felipe Lopez pitched the 18th for St. Louis.

Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez got the win despite allowing a run and Mike Pelfrey picked up the save.

St. Louis starter Jaime Garcia allowed just one hit in seven innings -- a leadoff single in the sixth by Pagan. New York’s Johan Santana also pitched seven innings and struck out nine. He allowed four hits and one walk.

St. Louis loaded the bases in the bottom of the 10th, 12th and 14th innings without scoring. In the 16th inning, the Cardinals had first and second with one out when pinch-hitter Brian Anderson grounded into a forceout. Ryan Ludwick tried to score from second and was easily thrown out at the plate by Reyes.

St. Louis left 22 runners on base and New York stranded 13.