Daytona 5, St. Lucie 3

The St. Lucie Mets dropped the first game of their four-game series with the Daytona Cubs 5-3 at Digital Domain Park Monday night. The loss was the Mets fourth loss in a row and puts them at 17-13 on the second half of the season and 55-45 overall.



Scott Moviel got the start for the Mets and was not greeted warmly. Moviel allowed a leadoff home run to put the Mets in an early 1-0 hole. Daytona would add a run in the third and put the game out of reach in the fifth inning scoring three times to make it a 5-0 game. St. Lucie would try to mount a comeback. Pedro Zapata singled in Rylan Sandoval and Mike Baxter doubled home Zapata to make it a 5-2 game through five innings. Stefan Welch made it a 5-3 game with his 12th home run of the season, a solo shot in the sixth inning. That would be all the offense the Mets could muster as the Mets could not get a key hit with a runner in scoring position in the seventh inning. The Cubs bullpen would retire the final seven St. Lucie batters to close out the Mets.



Scott Moviel got the loss falling to 5-8 on the season. Moviel allowed five runs, but three defensive miscues cost the Mets as only two runs were earned. Moviel struck out five and didn’t walk a batter in six innings. Stefan Welch led the Mets offensively with two hits including a solo home run. Mike Baxter also had two hits for the Mets while driving in a run. Pedro Zapata had a hit, scored once and drove in a run as well. Mike Powers tossed two scoreless innings in relief of Moviel and Josh Edgin danced around two hits to keep the Cubs off the scoreboard in the ninth inning.



The Mets and Cubs continue their four-game series Tuesday night at Digital Domain Park. Armando Rodriguez gets the start for the Mets. The right handed Rodriguez comes into the game with a 3-2 record and an ERA of 2.96 in ten starts this year. Rodriguez has tallied 54 strikeouts to 21 walks while holding opposing batters to a .200 batting average in 48.2 innings of work.

from team press release