CLEARWATER, Fla. - Henri Lartigue had another fantastic day game outing, aided by three doubles from rehabber Wilson Ramos, as the Threshers split the series against the St. Lucie Mets with a 4-1 win on Sunday afternoon.Lartigue is now batting .455 in nine Sunday games with the Threshers this season.
CLEARWATER, Fla. - Henri Lartigue had another fantastic day game outing, aided by three doubles from rehabber Wilson Ramos, as the Threshers split the series against the St. Lucie Mets with a 4-1 win on Sunday afternoon.
Lartigue is now batting .455 in nine Sunday games with the Threshers this season.
Clearwater (31-18) (63-54) remains on top of the FSL North 1.5 games ahead of the Dunedin Blue Jays and three games ahead of the Lakeland Flying Tigers with 20 games left in the regular season.
St. Lucie (20-28) (47-68) was on the board quickly in the first. The first batter of the ballgame Luis Carpio got ahold of a 1-1 pitch and rocketed a solo home run that landed in the Frenchy's Tiki area for an early 1-0 deficit.
David Wright began a rehab appearance with St. Lucie, playing his first professional game in almost a year. Mauricio Llovera held him to 0-for-3 in his five-inning appearance.
Clearwater evened things up in the fifth inning. Ramos ripped his third double of the day on a fly ball deep in center field with two outs in the inning, and Lartigue lined an RBI single into right to knot it up, 1-1.
Ramos played all nine innings as the designated hitter in his second rehab appearance with the Threshers. He went 3-for-4 with three doubles and a run scored.
Clearwater lunged ahead in the seventh inning. Kyle Martin reached base on a line drive that clipped off the glove of pitcher Joe Cavallaro. He was erased at second on a fielder's choice that permitted Kevin Markham to reach. Markham then stole second.
Jose Gomez hit a high pop up that got lost in the sun for the Mets infield, allowing Markham to score and Gomez to get aboard safely with an RBI single, putting Clearwater in the lead, 2-1.
The Threshers added on in the seventh inning. Mickey Moniak drew a leadoff walk and Lartigue sent a groundball through into center field to put men at the corners. With two gone, Daniel Brito singled on a line drive to right field to score Moniak. Martin followed suit with an RBI single, scoring Lartigue and extending Clearwater's lead to 4-1.
Llovera (5-7) shined in the start, relinquishing just one run on five hits while striking out seven in six innings of work.
Jonathan Hennigan gave up one hit, but turned a scoreless inning of relief, making it 10.2 straight scoreless innings for the lefty reliever.
Jakob Hernandez also tossed a scoreless inning of relief, and Addison Russ earned his 10th save for the Threshers with a scoreless ninth.
The Threshers continue a lengthy homestand with a four-game series against Bradenton, with the series opener on Monday. Bailey Falter (6-4) gets the nod for Clearwater against Mike Wallace (4-9) with the first pitch set at 7 p.m. Kirsten Karbach will be on the call for the Threshers Broadcast Network with the pregame show beginning at 6:45 p.m.
