Cards Power Past Mets on Rainy MOnday

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn.- Kingsport dropped Game 2 of the series against the Johnson City Cardinals Tuesday on a wet, soggy East Tennessee night as the Red Birds scored four runs in the first and nine in the third to over-power the K-Mets in the series-victory that lasted only six innings due to rain.
With the loss, Kingsport drops to 4-4 on the season against Johnson City.
A pair of two-run home runs had Johnson City (23-22) rolling early on for the second-consecutive game as the home team led 4-0 after one. The two-run blasts came from Wadye Ynfante, his seventh of the season, with one out and Brady Whalen, his fourth of the year, with two gone.
Kingsport (18-16) answered by plating a run off an RBI double in the top of the third, but that is where the wheels fell off as the Cards scored nine runs off six hits while sending 11 batters to the plate in the third to take a 13-1 lead after three innings.
Jonathan Rivera and Irving Lopez drove in runs off singles, Ynfante walked in a runner with the bases loaded and then both Julio Rodriguez and Luis Bandes doubled in a pair of runs apiece to light up the scoreboard to 11-1. Not done yet, Whalen sliced his second two-run home run of the day over the right field wall to drive in runs No. 12 and 13 in the inning.
The Cardinals added three more to the tally in the inning that followed as Rivera and Robbins doubled consecutively to lead off the fourth and both came around to score on the two-run single from Lopez. Rodriguez grounded in Lopez four batters later as Johnson City's lead grew to 15 runs at 16-1 through four innings at the ballpark.
Just prior to the start of the seventh inning, the game went into a 40-minute rain delay. Following the delay, the game was called a complete one because of the field conditions being too risky to continue.
The winning pitcher on the day for the Cardinals was Juan Alveraz (1-2) as the hurler tossed 1 1/3 innings before the delay with one strikeout prior to the delay. The righty came on in relief of starter Franyel Casadilla who was lifted one-out shy of what would have been a victory. Casadilly tossed 4 2/3 innings of one-run baseball, surrendering only three hits with five punch outs.
Ronald Sanchez (0-3) was credited with the loss after lasting only 2 2/3 innings while surrendering eight runs off seven hits with three strikeouts and two walks. Garrison Bryant was the first man out of the bullpen for the K-Mets as the righty did not fair much better as he surrendered another eight runs off seven hits. Yeudy Colon tossed two innings of svoreless baseball before the rain hit for good.
Kingsport managed only four hits on the night that included the RBI double form Paulino in the third frame. Angel Manzanarez, Anthoy Dirocie and Raphael Gladu tallied the other three hits-all singles.
Johnson City had an offensive showing on the night as five players record multi-hit days with Ynfante recording four knocks with three RBIs.
The finale of the three-game series is set to take place Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m. from TVA Credit Union Ballpark. Carlos Hernandez will get the nod for the Kingsport Mets as the coverage of the game can be found on the Kingsport Mets Baseball Network beginning at 6:45 p.m. with the Braden's Barbeque Pregame Show.