May 19—NEW YORK — However lopsided the scoreboard became by the final out, whatever bruising the Cardinals’ bullpen took to tilt it that way, the bigger question facing both teams Wednesday night was what they lost to injuries — and for how long.

Cardinals shortstop Edmundo Sosa and Mets veteran ace Max Scherzer both signaled to their dugout and abruptly left the field with injuries. Sosa was diagnosed with a mild strain of his left ankle and is considered day-to-day, though the Cardinals’ middle infield depth is too thin to go too many days without a replacement. Sosa is not expected to start Thursday’s afternoon game, the series finale at Citi Field.

Scherzer will undergo scans of his torso and oblique muscle Thursday to determine the cause of discomfort along his left side, Mets officials said.

By the time the three-time Cy Young Award winner left the game during an at-bat by Albert Pujols in the sixth inning, the Mets had already started to squeeze an 11-4 rout from the Cardinals’ bullpen. Rookie Jake Walsh failed to retire any of the four Mets he faced and all four scored to shatter a tie game. Lefty T. J. McFarland allowed five of the nine runs the Mets scored against Cardinals relievers.

“Just a combination of a lot of off nights for a lot of guys,” manager Oliver Marmol said.

Sosa jammed his left foot into the base when trying to steal second after a leadoff single in the fifth. He said he looked briefly back at the batter and then “the base was so close” he slid late. Sosa took the field for the bottom of the inning but felt uncomfortable moving side to side or quickly. He motioned for the trainer and headed to the training room.

Sosa said after the game the joint was still tender but improving.

“If there’s a groundball that I cannot (get), it’s going to complicate the game for that situation,” Sosa said with assistance from the team’s interpreter. “I would prefer for somebody to be 100% to go in that situation.”

The Cardinals brought Tommy Edman off the trainer’s table and away from treatment for his own injury to enter the game at second, nudging rookie Brendan Donovan to shortstop. Edman did not start Wednesday after playing all 18 innings Tuesday, fouling a ball of his left calf muscle, and having that area tighten up on him by Wednesday. Of the three middle infielders on the Cardinals’ active roster, two have leg issues.

The test of the on-hand depth comes eight days after the Cardinals demoted Paul DeJong and just days after leading prospect Nolan Gorman hit his Class AAA-leading 15th homer. Gorman went three-for-four Wednesday for Triple-A Memphis.

Limited availability shaped the bullpen use late in what was a tie game.

The Cardinals did not have Ryan Helsley out of the bullpen and wanted to avoid lengthy assignments for Genesis Cabrera and Giovanny Gallegos. Further complicating the evening was Jordan Hicks’ inefficiency. He pitched four innings and had more balls than strikes before leaving a 2-2 game and 15 outs to get for the bullpen. Marmol said the plan was to use the handy arms “in order of leverage.”

“Didn’t work,” he added. Into the fifth inning came Walsh. He walked the first batter, hit the second, and then allowed back-to-back singles. Four batters into his assigned inning, Walsh did not have an out, had allowed a tiebreaking single, and still had the bases loaded.

He also did not have the ball. That went to right-hander Nick Wittgren. He retired three of the four batters he faced. But he also allowed all three of his the inherited runners to score. Immediately after Nolan Arenado’s two-run homer in the eighth carved the Mets’ lead to two runs, the Mets got it back — with gusto. The Mets had five runs on McFarland before he could get his first out. Pete Alonso socked a three-run homer to turn the close game into a crater for the Cardinals and assure the Mets their first season series win against the Cardinals since 2014. McFarland has allowed eight runs in the past 2 2/3 innings pitched.

“Something is going on, and I’m trying like hell to fix it,” McFarland said. “I’m trying to get out of it. Effort is there. Definitely it is 100% there. It’s frustrating. It’s very frustrating, especially with our offense you need a zero (there). We had momentum. It’s disappointing that I come in and give up runs like that. It’s a huge deal to come out there and throw up a zero.”

Hicks was the first of the Cardinals’ pitchers to have trouble doing that. His sixth start was his last start following build-up protocols. From here, the right-hander will be judged on how he pitches in games, not hot many pitches he needs to throw in games. To get deeper into games, he’ll have to be better. Hicks has been searching for the placement of his lead foot, and that left him unsure of his fastball location Wednesday.

Without it, he struggled to stay in command of at-bats.

Seven of Hicks’ first eight pitches were balls. Four of the first five batters Hicks faced reached base, and the Mets turned that into a quick lead. By the end of four innings, Hicks had exhausted his pitches (82) and thrown more balls (43) than strikes (39).

Yet, the Cardinals were still in the game with a chance to steal a win despite Hicks’ start and the starter on the other side, Scherzer. The Cardinals tied the game with a gust of history. Pujols threaded a two-run single down the first-base line to knot the game, 2-2. The St. Louis superstar’s first hit against the St. Louis-area native Scherzer was Pujols’ 3,313th of his career, tying Eddie Collins for 10th all-time, according to Elias. Other researchers have Collins with 3,015 hits, but Major League Baseball and the Cardinals are using Elias’ total.

Pujols’ surpassed it with his second single off Scherzer, looping one into shallow center in the fourth. With 3,314 hits, Pujols knocked Collins, who retired in 1930, out of the top 10 for the first time in nearly 100 years.

During Pujols’ at-bat in the sixth, Scherzer felt “a zing” along his left side. He got the dugout’s attention and motioned his hand across his throat in the universal sign for “over, done.” Adam Ottavino struck out Pujols with two runners on base to preserve Scherzer’s line and fifth win of the season. The Mets await the results of his MRI. The Cardinals will see how Sosa feels in the morning.