Stone Crabs blank Mets 7-0

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (August 16, 2019) - The Charlotte Stone Crabs shut out the St. Lucie Mets 7-0 on Friday night at Charlotte Sports Park.
Three Stone Crabs pitchers combined for the shutout. Starter Tommy Romero lowered his FSL-best ERA to 1.99 by throwing five scoreless innings. He gave up two singles, walked two and struck out six.
Relievers Trey Cumbie and Alex Valverde each tossed two scoreless frames. They combined for six strikeouts.
New York Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo (neck) began a rehab assignment with St. Lucie. He went 1 for 3 with a single, walk and strikeout as the designated hitter. Nimmo was the only Met to reach second base the entire game. A two out walk drawn by Jeremy Vasquez forced him up to second base in the first inning.
The Stone Crabs started out slow on offense. Their only two runs against Mets starter Joe Cavallaro came on sac flies. The first was from Kaleo Johnson in the first inning. The second from Michael Smith made it 2-0 in the fourth inning.
Charlotte blew the game open with three runs in the sixth inning. Garrett Whitley dumped a run-scoring single into left field to plate Moises Gomez. An error on Wagner Lagrange in left field resulted in Michael Smith scoring on the play as well for a 4-0 lead. A double play later in the inning brought in a third run.
Moises Gomez crushed a long two-run homer in the seventh inning to make it 7-0.
All five hits for the Mets were singles. Dan Rizzie went 2 for 3. Vasquez went 1 for 3 plus a walk.
The Mets have now gone three consecutive games without recording an extra base hit. They have scored three runs in their last three games.
Cavallaro took the tough loss. He scattered three hits and two runs over five innings. He walked three and struck out seven. At one point he retired nine in a row, including five by strikeout.
The victory for Charlotte increased its division lead over the Mets to 4.5 games with 15 games left in the season. The Stone Crabs are 10-3 against the Mets this season.
The Mets (35-21, 67-55) and Stone Crabs (40-17, 75-48) play the middle game of their series on Saturday. First pitch at Charlotte Sports Park is 6 p.m.