NEW YORK (Interstat) — Juan Soto’s tiebreaking home run in the seventh inning lifted the New York Mets to a 5-4 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday afternoon at Citi Field, snapping a two-game losing streak and denying the Cardinals a three-game series sweep.

The Mets, who had lost the first two games of the series by a combined 16-2, fell behind early but chipped away at a four-run deficit before Soto delivered the decisive blow off Cardinals reliever JoJo Romero. The solo shot, his 14th of the season, cleared the right-center field wall with one out in the seventh, giving New York a 5-4 lead it would not relinquish.

Brooks Raley earned the win for the Mets, improving to 2-1. He pitched a scoreless seventh inning, striking out one and allowing no hits. Devin Williams closed the door in the ninth for his ninth save of the season, striking out two batters in a perfect inning of work.

Romero took the loss, falling to 0-2. He allowed one run on one hit in one-third of an inning, walking one and striking out none.

St. Louis struck first in the opening inning. After J.J. Wetherholt flied out and Ivan Herrera struck out, Alec Burleson launched an 11th home run to right field, giving the Cardinals a 1-0 lead. Jordan Walker then lined out sharply to left to end the inning.

The Mets answered emphatically in the bottom of the first. Carson Benge led off with a single to center, and Bo Bichette followed with a two-run homer to left-center, his sixth of the season, tying the game at 2-2. Juan Soto grounded out, but Jared Young then homered to right-center, his fourth, to put New York ahead 3-2. A.J. Ewing lined out, Marcus Semien singled, and Brett Baty struck out to strand a runner.

The Cardinals reclaimed the lead in the second inning. Lars Nootbaar led off with a home run to right-center, his second of the season, tying the game at 3-3. Masyn Winn followed with a double to left, and Jimmy Crooks then homered to right, his first of the season, scoring Winn and giving St. Louis a 5-3 lead. Nolan Gorman struck out, Nathan Church doubled, but Wetherholt grounded out and Herrera grounded out to end the inning with the Cardinals holding a 5-3 advantage.

The Mets trimmed the lead in the fifth inning. After Bichette grounded out, Soto doubled sharply to right. Jared Young then singled to center, scoring Soto and cutting the deficit to 5-4. Young advanced to second on the throw, but A.J. Ewing and Marcus Semien struck out to end the inning.

The score remained 5-4 until the seventh, when Soto connected for the go-ahead home run. The homer came off Romero, who had entered the game in relief of starter Hunter Dobbins.

Dobbins pitched 4 1/3 innings for the Cardinals, allowing seven hits and three earned runs while striking out five. He was charged with three of the Mets’ first four runs. George Soriano worked 1 1/3 scoreless innings in relief, striking out one and allowing no hits, but the damage had already been done by Soto’s blast.

Mets starter Christian Scott went 4 2/3 innings, surrendering seven hits and four earned runs while striking out six. He allowed all four of St. Louis’s runs, including three in the second inning. A.J. Minter pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings in relief, and Raley followed with a clean seventh.

The Cardinals had a chance to tie or take the lead in the ninth against Williams. Jimmy Crooks struck out swinging, Bryan Torres flied out to center, and Nathan Church struck out swinging to end the game.

St. Louis outhit New York 10-7 in the contest, but the Cardinals left five runners on base and were unable to capitalize after the second inning.

The game featured five home runs total, four of which came in the first two innings. Burleson, Nootbaar, Crooks, Bichette and Young all went deep before Soto’s decisive blast in the seventh.

The attendance was 37,019. The game lasted 2 hours, 39 minutes.

With the win, the Mets improved to 30-38 on the season, while the Cardinals fell to 37-29. New York had lost two straight entering the game, both by shutout in the first two days of the series, including a 9-2 defeat Wednesday and a 7-0 loss Tuesday. The Cardinals had won five of their last six overall before Thursday’s loss.

St. Louis continues its road trip Friday with the first of three games at Minnesota. The Mets return home to open a three-game series against Atlanta on Friday.

Interstat’s game simulator had projected a final score of St. Louis Cardinals 7, New York Mets 5. Interstat’s ELO system had projected the Mets with a 50.40 percent probability to win. New York had been installed as a pregame favorite with a spread of minus-1.5.