Cardinals rebound with 11-5 win over Mets
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (August 25, 2022) – The Palm Beach Cardinals rebounded from Wednesday’s implosion with an 11-5 victory over the St. Lucie Mets at Clover Park on Thursday. The Cardinals collected 13 hits, mashed three home runs and scored in six of their nine innings. The game was
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (August 25, 2022) – The Palm Beach Cardinals rebounded from Wednesday’s implosion with an 11-5 victory over the St. Lucie Mets at Clover Park on Thursday.
The Cardinals collected 13 hits, mashed three home runs and scored in six of their nine innings.
The game was nip-and-tuck through the first four innings with the Mets trailing just 5-4 entering the fifth. The Cardinals teed off on reliever Benito Garcia (2-3) in the fifth with four straight hits to start the inning. Jeremy Rivas hit a two-run double to make it 7-4, then Leonardo Bernal doubled in Rivas for an 8-4 lead. Chris Rotondo added a sac fly later in the inning to put the Cardinals up 9-4.
The Mets scored a run in the bottom of the fifth on a wild pitch to cut the lead to 9-5. However, Palm Beach relievers Gustavo Rodriguez, D.J. Carpenter and Nelfi Contreras combined to limit the Mets to one hit and no runs over the final four innings.
RJ Yeager and Bernal added solo home runs against Mets reliever Layonel Ovalles in the eighth and ninth innings to complete the scoring.
New York Mets pitcher Joey Lucchesi (Tommy John surgery) made his second rehab start with St. Lucie. He pitched a scoreless first inning by working around a leadoff triple. Lucchesi struck out two and threw just 14 pitches.
The Mets loaded the bases with no outs in the first inning and again in the third inning against Palm Beach starter Jose Davila. Each time the Mets came away with just one run on RBI ground out by Tanner Murphy and a sac fly by Murphy.
Bryan Pope (3-3) got the final two outs of the fourth inning to get the win for the Cardinals.
D’Andre Smith and Omar De Los Santos both went 2 for 4 with a walk in the loss.
Justin Guerrera hit a solo homer, his 11th of the season.
The Mets (67-49, 27-24) and Cardinals (58-57, 28-23) play the fourth game of their series at Clover Park on Friday. As part of School’s Back Night all K-12 students, school employees and first responders get a free ticket. First pitch is 6:10 p.m.