Cardinals fly past error-prone Mets

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- Second baseman Roberto Alomar and first baseman Mo Vaughn made errors that helped give St. Louis four runs in the third inning, and the Cardinals beat the New York Mets 7-2 Wednesday.

The Mets made five errors, a day after committing four in a loss to Los Angeles.

"There's no intensity to their fielding and their bats aren't as good as they could be," Mets manager Bobby Valentine said. "I don't know if I played them too much or they're distracted, but we should be doing better."

Eli Marrero's two-run double was the Cardinals' key hit in the third against Al Leiter.

Edgardo Alfonzo homered for the Mets. Edgar Renteria connected for the Cardinals.

The Mets played what appeared to be their opening day lineup, with the lone exception being Timo Perez in center for Jay Payton. Other than that, New York put a team on the field that was built during the offseason with power and defense in mind.

"Right now it's not what I expected at this time of the spring," Valentine said. "We've done a lot of individual work, we've gotten them a lot of extra batting practice, we've taken infield all the time, I must have just missed a beat here the last couple of weeks."

"I probably didn't get them as ready for these last couple of days as I should have," he said.