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The St. Louis Cardinals know the New York Mets’ pitching staff will provide plenty of challenges this weekend.

The Mets are hoping Juan Soto can further complicate things for the Cardinals during the next three days.

Soto will look to snap his early-season slump Friday night, when the Mets host the Cardinals in the second game of a four-game series between the longtime National League rivals.

Left-hander David Peterson (1-1, 2.70 ERA) is slated to start for the Mets against Cardinals right-hander Miles Mikolas (0-2, 9.00).

Griffin Canning and a trio of relievers combined on a three-hitter Thursday night, when the Mets scored all of their runs in the second inning of a 4-1 victory.

Soto didn’t factor into the second-inning outburst. He was left on deck when Tyrone Taylor scored just before Francisco Lindor ran out of the baseline in a rundown between first and second for the final out.

Soto, who signed a 15-year deal worth $765 million last December, was 0-for-3 with an eighth-inning walk Thursday and is just 2-for-21 in his last six games. Overall, Soto is hitting .221 with three homers and seven RBIs — though, as Mets manager Carlos Mendoza noted Thursday afternoon, he’s still getting on base at a steady clip.

Soto has drawn a team-high 15 walks and ranks second on the Mets in both on-base percentage (.361) and OPS (.773).

“It’s funny, because here we are talking about not having the start that he would like or we would like or people would like,” Mendoza said. “And he’s still getting on base and giving you great at-bats. I just want him to be himself, go out there and have fun and play the game.”

The Cardinals didn’t have much fun at the plate Thursday, when they were held without an extra-base hit for the first time this season as the Mets lowered their major-league-leading ERA to 2.30.

St. Louis was 1-for-14 with runners on base and didn’t record a hit after Alec Burleson’s bunt single leading off the fourth.

“We weren’t able to do enough offensively today,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said.

The Mets’ scheduled starters the rest of the series — Peterson and right-handers Kodai Senga and Clay Holmes — are 5-3 with a 2.48 ERA in their first 10 starts.

“This rotation — (the) guys we’re facing are going to be a nice little matchup over the next several days here,” Marmol said.

Peterson took the defeat in his most recent outing Saturday, when he gave up two runs over six innings as the Mets lost 3-1 to the Athletics. Mikolas was also the losing pitcher Saturday, allowing three runs over five innings as the Cardinals fell to the Philadelphia Phillies 4-1.

Peterson has never opposed the Cardinals – the only NL team he has yet to face other than the Mets. Mikolas is 2-4 with a 5.31 ERA in eight career games (seven starts) against New York.

–Field Level Media