Sano homers again, Miracle beat Crabs 5-3

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (April 25, 2013) - Miguel Sano hit his league-leading eighth home run and D.J. Baxendale pitched six gritty innings to lead the Fort Myers Miracle to a 5-3 win over the Charlotte Stone Crabs on Thursday.

Baxendale allowed six hits, two runs and walked two, but he was able to pitch out of trouble in his six innings of work. He induced two inning-ending double play balls in the third and fifth innings and he retired Luke Scott, who is on an MLB rehab assignment, all three times he faced him.

Baxendale, a 10th round pick out of Arkansas in 2012, improved to 3-0 and has a 1.54 ERA in four starts.

The Miracle spotted their starter a lead right out of the gate. AJ Pettersen led off the game with a double and Levi Michael followed with an RBI triple. It was Michael's first at-bat of the season after missing the first 19 games while on the disabled list. Eddie Rosario made it three hits in a row off of Ryan Carpenter to start the game when his infield single plated Michael to make it 2-0.

Michael and Rosario were at it again in the third. Michael belted another triple, and another single by Rosario made it 3-0. Rosario later scored from third when third baseman Richie Shaffer made an error on a ball hit by Drew Leachman.

The 4-0 Miracle lead was cut in half in the fourth when Jeff Malm singled home Kyeong Kang.

Sano got the run back in the fifth with his eighth home run of the year. Unlike his usual towering shots to left, Sano drove a 3-2 pitch from Eliazer Suero into the right field bullpen for an opposite field homer.

The Crabs had a chance to get back in the game in the seventh when they loaded the bases against reliever Dakota Watts with no outs. However, Watts got a ground ball force out at home, a weak fly out to left field and another ground out to get out of the inning unscathed.

Corey Williams gave up a solo home run in the eighth to Shaffer, but he closed the door in the ninth to pick up his fifth save.

Rosario ended up with three hits for the Miracle while Kennys Vargas also picked up two singles.

The Miracle (16-4) will return to Hammond Stadium on Friday at 7:05 p.m. to face the Stone Crabs (8-12). The Square One Burgers and Bar pregame show with Brice Zimmerman and Adam MacDonald begins on miraclebaseball.com at 6:45 p.m.