Palm Beach Held Scoreless After First in Loss

The Palm Beach Cardinals added a run in the bottom of the first inning Tuesday night against the St. Lucie Mets. Fast forward to the ninth inning, and they stranded the bases loaded after failing to score again, and the visiting St. Lucie Mets claimed a 3-1 decision over Palm Beach at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium.

Brady Whalen (making his 2022 Minor League debut), Hansel Otamendi and Ramon Mendoza each reached base via walk to chase Mets reliever Miguel Alfonseca from the game with two outs in the ninth. But Dylan Hall had to throw just one pitch to yield a Tyler Reichenborn groundout to end the game and pick up a one-out save.

Mendoza proved to be the Beach Birds' sole run scored when he came home in the opening inning on an Osvaldo Tovalin double. Reichenborn was the only Cardinal to record multiple hits on the night.

Inhohan Paniagua absorbed the loss for Palm Beach with a six-inning, five strikeout night. He surrendered two runs, both solo home runs in the second and fifth innings.

Relief righty Edgar Manzo also gave up a solo homer in the eighth. It was Carlos Dominguez's second big fly of the game for St. Lucie. Ludwin Jimenez had two strikeouts across a shutout ninth inning for Palm Beach.

The Cardinals see the Mets again Wednesday night for Game 2 of this six-game series. Trent Baker will take the hill after being named the Florida State League Pitcher of the Week with his seven-inning shutout start last week. It is also Silver Sluggers Wednesday at RDCS.

For Tuesday's final box, click here.