St. Lucie 3, Dunedin 2
St. Lucie 4, Dunedin 2
The recent soggy weather in South Florida was not enough to slow the surging St. Lucie Mets on Monday. The Advanced-A club captured both games of a doubleheader over Dunedin at Tradition Field, including a come-from-behind 4-3 victory in the opener that was the continuation of Sunday’s suspended game. The Mets completed the sweep with a 4-2 win in the nightcap. Both outings were shortened to seven innings to accommodate the twinbill.
In the first game, St. Lucie plated two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to stun the Blue Jays, who had taken a 3-2 lead in the fifth. Shortstop Matt Reynolds led off the inning with a bunt single, one of three times he reached base in the game. He advanced to second base after a throwing error by Dunedin third baseman Gustavo Pierre that allowed Robbie Shields to take first.
Yucary De La Cruz, in just his third game with the Mets since being promoted from Savannah, doubled to left field to score Reynolds and move Shields to third. After a walk to Gilbert Gomez, Kyle Johnson delivered the winning run with a sacrifice fly to center — his third RBI in the past four games.
St. Lucie pitcher Rainy Lara (3-3) claimed the win in relief of Michael Fulmer, who permitted just one hit — a solo home run — and one walk with a strikeout over three innings Sunday before the game was suspended because of rain. Lara surrendered two runs on three hits and a walk in four innings while finishing with two strikeouts.
Reynolds went 2-for-2 with a walk and a solo homer in the second inning. The blast was his fourth of the season and first since June 18th. Interestingly enough, Reynolds has produced one homer in each of the first four months of the season. Outfielder Dustin Lawley finished 0-for-3 to end his season-high 10-game hitting streak.
During the nightcap, the Mets (50-40) overcame a shaky outing from stater Domingo Tapia and held the Blue Jays scoreless for the final five innings to push their win streak to five games. Tapia lasted only 1.2 innings — the fourth time this season he has failed to complete at least two innings — and allowed two runs (one earned) on three hits and four walks. He finished with just one strikeout after fanning at least five batters in each of his past four starts (24 total). Tapia was not pulled for any injury concerns — but purely based on his struggles last night.
St. Lucie scored two runs in the first inning off Blue Jays starter Sergio Santos, the closer for the parent club who was making his latest rehab appearance. Santos let the first three batters he faced reach base as the Mets sent seven players to the plate in the opening frame.
Dunedin tied the game at 2-all in the second before St. Lucie plated a run in the fourth and sixth innings to seal the victory, capped by T.J. Chism‘s 13th save of the season. Johnson went 2-for-3 with a walk, two runs scored and two stolen bases. T.J. Rivera went 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored. The Bronx native is now riding a nine-game hitting streak to raise his batting average to .279.
Key Stats (combined for doubleheader)
Kyle Johnson: 2-for-6, 2 R, 1 BB, 1 RBI, 2 SB
Matt Reynolds: 2-for-5, 1 HR, 2 R, 1 BB
Yucary De La Cruz: 2-for-3, 1 2B, 1 RBI
T.J. Rivera: 4-for-6, 2 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 SB
Jayce Boyd: 0-for-4, 1 BB, 2 RBI
Michael Fulmer: 3 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 ER, 1 K
Rainy Lara: 4 IP, 3 H, 1 BB, 2 ER, 2 K
Tim Byrdak: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 ER, 1 K
T.J. Chism: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 BB, 0 ER, 1 K