Charlotte holds off Palm Beach, 7-5

PORT CHARLOTTE - Wednesday was another crazy night of baseball at Charlotte Sports Park, but the Charlotte Stone Crabs ended up on the right side of a 7-5 decision over the Palm Beach Cardinals.

Cardinals pitchers were undone by walks, but Stone Crabs hurlers narrowly escaped a similar fate. Palm Beach pitchers combined to walk six men, while Charlotte issued nine free passes themselves.

Victor Mateo (1-2) spun six scoreless innings to earn his first win of the season. Making just his fourth start of the season, Mateo issued four walks, but balanced that by allowing just three hits.

Palm Beach starter Todd McInnis (0-4) worked five innings in taking the loss. He was charged with six runs - four earned - on seven hits, walking five while striking out four.

Walks created the initial opportunity for the Stone Crabs to take the early lead. McInnis issued four free passes in the second inning, including bases loaded walks to both Luke Bailey and Robi Estrada to make it a 2-0 game.

Charlotte tacked on two runs in the third and fifth innings as well. Mike Mahtook tripled to lead off the third inning and came in to scored on a Derek Dietrich single. Three batters later, Steve Tinoco lined a single to center that chased home Dietrich with the second run of the frame.

With runners at second and third, Tinoco singled to left to drive in Riccio Torrez. Cardinals outfielder Mike O'Niell misplayed the ball to allow Phil Wunderlich to come around to score on the play as well.

A pair of walks helped the Cardinals scratched across a run against Stone Crabs reliever George Jensen, who had an even more difficult time in the eighth. Jensen walked two more in the eighth, which were followed by singles from Jeremy Patton and Luis De la Cruz before being lifted in favor of T.J. Geith.

The Cardinals scored two more runs once Geith came on. Palm Beach plated the first on a fielder's choice, another on a throwing error and a third on an RBI single from Starlin Rodriguez.

Geith battled through the Palm Beach order in the eighth and ninth to record his first save of the season.

Having already extended his season-high hitting streak to 11-games, Cody Rogers singled home an important insurance run in the bottom of the eighth. He finished the game 2-for-5.

Tinoco finished with a pair of RBI's, while Torrez and Wunderlich each scored two runs.

The Stone Crabs travel to historic McKechnie Field to begin the second half with a three-game series against the Bradenton Marauders on Thursday. Rehabbing Tampa Bay Rays reliever Kyle Farnsworth will make the start. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m.