Fort Myers 5, St. Lucie 1 (Box)

Fort Myers 8, St. Lucie 2 (Box)

How the tide has turned.

Earlier this month, during a five-game hitting streak, the St. Lucie offense was thriving and took two of three games from Fort Myers at Tradition Field after out-hitting the Miracle 36-20..

The Mets (66-59) dropped both ends of a doubleheader at Fort Myers for the second time in three days Sunday to plummet further in the FSL South Division standings with their sixth consecutive loss. The Miracle (75-52) claimed a 5-1 win in the opener before scoring in almost every inning during the nightcap for an 8-2 victory.

St. Lucie, which is just 2-9 in its past 11 games, fell into a tie for third place with Fort Myers — the division’s first-half winner — and is now 5.5 games behind Charlotte with seven games left in the season. The Mets welcome the Stone Crabs to Tradition Field for a huge three-game set beginning Monday that will ultimately decide their playoff fate.

But the club’s bats have gone cold at the most inopportune time. St. Lucie plated just 13 runs during the four-game series at Hammond Stadium, eight of which came in the first contest last Friday. Outfielder Dustin Lawley was the only Mets player to collect two hits in the opener, as the team mustered just four singles.

Starting pitcher Rainy Lara (4-5) surrendered five runs on nine hits in five innings to take the loss, extending his winless skid to five games. He struck out two batters and walked one — the right-hander has not won in more than a month (July 23rd).

In Game 2, St. Lucie tallied a run in the first inning before managing just one more the rest of the contest to spoil the team debut of pitcher Octavio Acosta. Promoted from the Gulf Coast League Mets last Sunday to take the roster spot of Matthew Bowman, Acosta gave up three runs on three hits in three innings en route to the loss.

The righty’s command was a noticeably erratic, as he finished with five walks and three strikeouts. It was a steep contrast to his nine-game (six starts) performance at the GCL level when he yielded just eight walks with 40 strikeouts over 43.1 innings and compiled a 2.28 ERA.

However, the St. Lucie offense struggled to back him up. They left six men on base — all of them in scoring position — and were a combined 3-for-12 with runners on second and third base in the doubleheader. Leadoff hitter Kyle Johnson went 0-for-6 with a walk and a run scored in the twin-bill to drop his batting average to .286. Since his 16-game hitting streak was halted last Thursday, he has now gone without a hit in three of his past four outings.

Key Statistics

Dustin Lawley: 2-for-3

Rylan Sandoval: 2-for-5, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 3B

Jayce Boyd: 3-for-5, 1 BB, 2 RBI

Yucary De La Cruz: 1-for-3, 1 2B

Rainy Lara: 5 IP, 9 H, 1 BB, 5 ER, 2 K

Octavio Acosta: 3 IP, 3 H, 5 BB, 3 ER, 3 K