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NEW YORK (AP) — Dillon Gee is grateful for the recent spate of bad weather — in more ways than one.

Gee revealed he has tendinitis in his right elbow and was able to make his start Wednesday night because two rainouts last week in Washington pushed his turn back a couple of days.

What a start it was, though.

Gee pitched effectively into the seventh inning, Lucas Duda hit one of three Mets homers and New York scored the most runs allowed by Shelby Miller in his young career for a 5-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals.

"Luckily, the rainouts came at a great time for me personally," Gee said.

The right-hander said he's had tendinitis since spring training and his elbow was checked out by a doctor. Now, it's just a matter of managing the pain.

David Wright and Marlon Byrd also connected for the Mets, who snapped a three-game skid and improved to 2-6 in June. Duda drove in two runs, including a first-inning single that scored Daniel Murphy from first base.

With prized pitching prospect Zack Wheeler nearing his promotion to the big leagues, Gee (5-6) has done everything possible to protect his spot in the rotation. He has yielded only three earned runs over 21 innings in his past three starts — all wins.

The run of poor weather — the Mets have been postponed six times this season — also might help keep Gee in the rotation for at least another start or two. More rain is forecast for Thursday.

"We're looking right now at a possibility of going with the sixth starter for a few days," manager Terry Collins said.

New York needs an extra starter for a makeup doubleheader Tuesday in Atlanta.

A day after being named NL captain for the Home Run Derby during All-Star week at Citi Field, Wright hit a long ball into the center-field seats just to the right of the Big Apple in the sixth.

"I simply didn't execute," Miller said. "A curveball right down the middle to Duda, a fastball right down the middle to Wright. I made mistakes and they capitalized on them."

The NL Central-leading Cardinals entered with the league's best batting average at .277 but could get little going against Gee, who is on a three-game run that's as good as Miller (7-4) has been all season.

Gee scattered six hits and struck out seven in 6 2-3 innings. He gave up a one-out homer in the sixth to Allen Craig — his second in two days against the Mets.

The recent success could not have come at a better time for the crafty Gee, because the Mets plan to call up Wheeler to start one game of Tuesday's doubleheader. While Collins said everyone would get their turn through the rotation, a pitcher will likely be demoted to the bullpen after that to make room for Wheeler — and it most likely will be Gee or Jeremy Hefner.

"You've got to weigh a lot of things, Collins said. "You've got to weigh health. You're going to weigh who could pitch out of the bullpen, who's got credentials out of the bullpen. It could be we can't afford to put somebody in the bullpen, we're going to need a starter at another time."

Miller, on the other hand, has solidified a spot in the Cardinals' rotation with surprising consistency for a 22-year-old. The four runs the Mets scored were the most he's allowed in 19 big league appearances — 13 starts this season. He had allowed three runs three times this year and his ERA is 2.21, up from 1.91 going into the game.

"There are time that it's not just selection (of pitches), but execution," St. Louis manager Mike Matheny said. "Sometimes young pitchers with early success in their careers fall into this. It is a tough league, good hitters — they make adjustments. They call this a game of adjustments for a reason."

Miller struck out 10 without a walk in six innings.

The Mets did not score against him over 5 2-3 innings on May 15 but were able to go ahead in the first when Wright lined a two-out double to right-center and scored on Murphy's single.

Running on a pitch to Duda, Murphy, not known for his speed, scored from first when right fielder Carlos Beltran played the line drive down the first base line lackadaisically and made his throw to second base.

"What a great read. He never slowed down," Byrd said. "That's what we need — aggressive."

With one out in the fourth, Duda homered into the Cardinals' bullpen in right-center to end a run of eight straight outs by Miller that began after Duda's RBI single in the first.

Byrd homered off Seth Maness in the seventh.

David Freese went 0 for 4 for the Cardinals, ending his career-best hitting streak at 20 games — longest in the majors this season.

NOTES: Cardinals RHP Jake Westbrook (elbow inflammation) is scheduled to come off the disabled list and start Friday night in Miami, but Matheny still has not said who will be sent to the minors to make room. ... Thursday's matinee features a marquee pitching matchup between St. Louis RHP Adam Wainwright (9-3) and Mets RHP Matt Harvey (5-0), but heavy rain is in the forecast. ... Mets SS Omar Quintanilla struck out four times. ... Yadier Molina had three hits for St. Louis.

SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- Tony Parker, along with all of San Antonio, really, spent a restless night worrying about a gimpy right hamstring that hampered him in Game 3 of the NBA Finals and threatened the momentum the Spurs seized with a drubbing of the Miami Heat.

A day later, Parker said he got some good news. Just how good the news is likely won't be known until Game 4 begins on Thursday night.

Parker had an MRI on Wednesday that revealed a Grade 1 strain of his hamstring, the mildest level of strain. He's listed as day to day.

"I was just hoping it was not a tear," Parker said. "The good news is it's not a tear or a defect. So that's the good news. Now I just have to see how I feel tomorrow."

Parker was injured early in the second half of Game 3, which the Spurs won 113-77 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. He was limited to six points and eight assists in 27 minutes and left the game early in the fourth quarter with the outcome already decided.

Parker did not participate in the portion of practice on Wednesday that was open to the media, instead watching his teammates go through a light workout while spending much of the time in conversation with Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.

"We'll see how it goes tomorrow. We'll talk with Pop," Parker said. "I know Pop is always going to prefer to take low risk."

When asked about Parker's outlook, Popovich said, "a lot of it will be what he feels, I think."

Parker's injury somewhat muted the celebration in San Antonio following the Spurs' decisive bounce-back victory that put them two wins shy of the franchise's fifth championship.

While the Spurs' role players have been playing incredibly well in these finals, they know they will need Parker's leadership, guts and unparalleled mastery of the pick-and-roll to bury LeBron James and the Heat. Danny Green, Gary Neal and Kawhi Leonard have been revelations so far in this series, scoring the same number of points (130) through the first three games that the Heat's vaunted trio of James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh have managed.

Neal filled in brilliantly for a slowed-down Parker on Tuesday night, scoring 24 points and hitting six 3-pointers to pick up the slack. The Spurs have two more games at home - on Thursday and then Game 5 on Sunday - to try to close out the Heat and avoid having to head back to Miami.

"A lot of the Miami defense is focusing on me and my teammates are taking advantage of it," Parker said. "They're playing great and hopefully they can keep it going."

Still, it feels like a long way to go, because Parker is the engine that keeps this precision machine humming. He entered his fourth NBA Finals at the height of his powers, asserting himself as the best point guard in the game by carrying the Spurs into the showdown with Miami. After scoring 21 points and dishing out six assists in San Antonio's Game 1 win, Parker was averaging 22.9 points and 7.1 assists this playoffs, the best numbers of his career for a postseason that included more than one series.

He scored 13 points on 5-for-14 shooting in their Game 2 loss and was just 2 for 5 on Tuesday night.

As important as his scoring and distributing have been for the Spurs, the confidence he instills with his steady hand on the throttle may be even bigger. The Spurs aren't big on swagger, but they play with a different demeanor when he's on the court slicing and dicing opposing defenses.

"He does a lot for us," Neal said. "If he's not scoring, he's drawing the defense and being a facilitator. He has a great basketball I.Q. He brings a certain amount of confidence and toughness to our team. We definitely need Tony on the floor."

If Parker has to miss Game 4, it no doubt would inject some life into a Heat team that was dazed and staggered in Game 3. A club that won 66 games in the regular season, including 27 straight at one point, and entered the playoffs as the prohibitive favorite to repeat as champions found itself down by 37 points at one point in the loss.

Without Parker on the floor Thursday night, things would be different.

"He is the head of their snake," Heat guard Mario Chalmers said. "I feel like that. The whole team feels like that."

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra brushed aside a question about Parker's availability, clearly more disappointed and concerned about his own team's performance in Game 3 than anything happening with the Spurs.

"If we bring the level of effort and focus that we did last night it doesn't matter who plays," Spoelstra said. "We're hoping he plays. We want both teams to be healthy. We don't want any excuses and they don't want any excuses either."

SEATTLE (AP) — Jozy Altidore continued his scoring blitz with a goal in his third straight match, Eddie Johnson thrilled his home club fans with a goal in the 53rd minute, and the United States took over first place in its World Cup qualifying group with a 2-0 win over Panama on Tuesday.

Altidore scored in the 36th minute on a perfect cross from Fabian Johnson, moments after a potential penalty kick for the Americans was denied.

Eddie Johnson then gave the U.S. some cushion when he collected Geoff Cameron's pass over the top of Panama's defense and slid a left-footed shot past Jaime Penedo less than 10 minutes into the second half.

The U.S. holds a two-point lead over Costa Rica and Mexico in the qualifying group in the 10-game final round of the North and Central American and Caribbean region. They will host Honduras next Tuesday night in Sandy, Utah.