With the Mets’ failure yesterday, they’ve now lost every series in June except one. Of their three remaining series this month, one comes against a first-place team, and the other two against second-place teams with better records than the Mets. Am I the only one who’s secretly rooting for the Phillies to go on a tear, so we can be put out of our misery?

The Mets’ (34-33) first opponent of the three teams is the first-place St. Louis Cardinals (39-31). The Cardinals are hot right now despite getting off to a rocky start at the beginning of the month. They just swept Kansas City and took two of three from Detroit prior to that and now sit a game-and-a-half up on the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central.

The Cardinals will be throwing Todd Wellemeyer (6-6, 5.36), Joel Pineiro (5-8, 3.76), Brad Thompson (2-2, 3.89), and Chris Carpenter (5-1, 1.53). Tim Redding (0-2, 6.27), Livan Hernandez (5-1, 4.18), Fernando Nieve (2-0, 1.84), and Johan Santana (8-5, 3.22) will pitch for the Mets.

I will note that we’ll be doing things a little different this week. I’ve had a series of projects to take care of at work, and I just haven’t had a block of time lately to write a full column. What I’m going to do is this: I’ll post each of the four scouting reports the morning of the game.

Game 1: Todd Wellemeyer, RHP

What’s the Story? You can find my original scouting report on Wellemeyer here.

This Year: Wellemeyer had a pretty standard 2009 outing earlier this season against the Mets. He allowed four runs and was constantly in and out of danger, allowing 10 hits and two walks over five innings.

What to Expect: Wellemeyer just hasn’t been able to get both his feet on the ground at any point this season. Everytime he has a good outing, he turns around and gives the Cardinals another reason (or two or three) to yank him from the starting rotation. His walk rate has been a little high this year, but the real problem is a low strikeout rate and higher hit and homerun rates. What those four things almost always points to is a pitcher who’s spending too much time behind in the count and has to make hitters’ pitches to avoid putting runners on. Wellemeyer will make mistakes, so a little patience is probably a good thing tonight.

Overall: I think Redding pitches halfway decent today, Wellemeyer doesn’t, and the Mets win by something like a score of 6-4. Provided Jerry doesn’t screw up with the bullpen again.