Palacios Inside-The-Parker Not Enough In Loss To Jupiter

The Dunedin Blue Jays fell for the second straight night, losing in extras by a 5-4 score to the Jupiter Hammerheads on Tuesday evening at Dunedin Stadium. CF Joshua Palacios bounced back after seeing his 13-game hit streak end last night with a pair of hits including an inside-the-park home run and three runs batted in, but it wasn't enough as Jupiter scored a pair of unearned runs in the tenth to hand Dunedin defeat.
Jupiter got on the scoreboard first in the second inning against RHP Yennsy Diaz. Stone Garrett knocked a one-out double to deep left, and Lazaro Alonso lofted a two-run homer over the wall in the left field corner to put Jupiter up 2-0. After J.C. Millan followed with another double to left, Diaz used a ground out and strikeout to end the inning and limit further damage. 
The Blue Jays answered in the third inning to tie the game. C Alberto Mineo led off the inning with a single. After the next to batters were retired on a strikeout and a fly out, Palacios drilled a fly ball off the center field wall. The carom skipped away from Tristan Pompey in center, rolling into the rightfield gap as Palacios circled the bases and scored standing up with an inside-the-park home run.
The Blue Jays almost pulled off a near-unprecedented feat of back-to-back inside-the-parkers, as the following batter 2B Ivan Castillo also hit a rocket to center that bounced off the wall and into the gap, but Castillo was held at third as Jupiter relayed the ball back in from the outfield. Hammerheads starter Ryan Lillie induced a pop up to end the inning and strand Castillo.
The triple extended Castillo's hitting streak at Dunedin Stadium to 14 games, the longest active home batting streak in the Florida State League. He'd go on to finish the night 1-4, maintaining his spot at the top of the Florida State League Batting Title chase with a .305 average.
After the two-run second inning, Diaz settled in and allowed just one hit over the next three frames.
In the sixth, Riley Mahan dropped a leadoff double that eluded the glove of a sliding LF Brock Lundquist. A fly out by Pompey advanced the runner to third before a two-out triple by Garrett brought him home and put the Hammerheads up 3-2.
Lundquist drove a ground ball just inside the bag at first into the rightfield corner for a double to lead off the home half of the seventh inning. After a walk to RF Chad Spanberger, DH Logan Warmoth crushed a double off the wall in left, scoring Lundquist to tie the game. WIth runners on second and third, Mineo hit a hard ground ball to first for the first out of the inning. Lillie intentionally walked 1B Kacy Clemens to load the bases and then induced a double play ground ball to escape the jam with the score still tied.
The score remained even at 3-3 until the tenth inning. Diaz exited after seven complete with a quality start and a line of 7.0 innings pitched, seven hits, three runs, no walks, and four strikeouts. RHP Jonny Cheshire tossed a one-two-three eighth inning, and RHP Jackson McClelland sat the Hammerheads down in order in the ninth.
McClelland returned to the mound in the tenth inning. With a pace-of-play courtesy runner on second, he walked the first batter. The next hitter tried to bunt but popped the ball back up and McClelland made an athletic catch near the first baseline to record the first out of the inning. Bryson Brigman then lofted a shallow pop fly into right field that looked like a routine out, but it fell in front of Spanberger for a bases-loading single.
The Blue Jays came ever so close to escaping the jam unscathed. The following batter hit a hard ground ball to Yeltsin Gudino at third. Gudino went to tag the runner coming to third and then rifled a throw to first base. Clemens made an impressive stretching catch while falling off the bag that looked to complete a game-saving double play. However, the umpire ruled that the runner going to third had eluded Gudino's tag and that Clemens had been pulled off the bag by the throw, allowing a run to score and keeping the bases loaded.
McClelland walked the next hitter on a 3-2 pitch to force in another run, putting the Hammerheads up 5-3, before recording a pop up and a strikeout to end the inning.
Gudino opened the bottom of the tenth at second base as the pace-of-play runner and scored when Palacios promptly led off the inning with an RBI single to right. That would be all the Blue Jays would get in extras, as Castillo flew out, Palacios was caught attempting to steal, and SS Kevin Smith struck out to end the game.
For Jupiter, Lillie put up a line almost identical to Diaz's, going 7.0 innings, allowing three runs on five hits, walking two, and striking out five. Zech Lemond picked up the win out of the bullpen, his third of the season, throwing the ninth and tenth innings. McClelland took the loss for Dunedin despite not allowing an earned run.
The loss drops Dunedin's second half record to 30-22. With Clearwater on the verge of picking up another win tonight, Dunedin would fall 3.5 games out of first place in the North Division. Jupiter and Dunedin will continue their four-game series at Dunedin Stadium tomorrow evening at 6:30 PM with RHP Maverik Buffo (3-2, 5.17 ERA) on the hill for the Blue Jays.