The Bradenton Marauders defeated the St. Lucie Mets by one run for the second straight game on Sunday. The Marauders led the whole way and staved off several Mets rallies to walk out of Tradition Field with a 7-6 victory.
Josh Bell tallied five RBIs on the afternoon, two on a home run in the first inning and two more on a triple in the seventh that extended Bradenton’s lead to 7-4.
Gilbert Gomez drove a two-run triple off the left field walk to make it 7-6 in the eighth, but Gomez was thrown out by first baseman Jose Osuna trying to take home on the play. The throw trying to get Gomez at third sailed high, and Osuna tracked it down near the Mets bullpen and threw a strike home to get Gomez as he tried to score the tying run.
The Mets drew two walks with two outs in the ninth to put the tying run in scoring position, but Albert Cordero grounded out to Osuna to end the game.
The Marauders jumped out to a 5-0 lead on Mets starter Luis Cessa. Bell greeted him with the two-run homer in the first, and an error on Eudy Pina in right led to two more runs in the third. Jonathan Schwind plated a run on a ground out in the fifth to make it 5-0.
Cessa would settle down and retire nine in a row. Meanwhile, the Mets came to life at the plate. Phillip Evans double in the fifth and Maikis De La Cruz brought him home with a single off of John Kuchno to make it 5-1.
Pina ripped a two-run double in the sixth and Cordero followed with an RBI single to bring the deficit to 5-4. Cordero advance to third on a fly out and stood 90 feet from home as the tying run with one out. He tried to come home on wild pitch by Ryan Hafner, but the ball bounced hard off the backstop right to Jin-De Jhang, who got Cordero out in a rundown.
Bell provided the eventual winning runs with his two-out, two-run triple in the seventh.
Cessa took the loss, pitching 6 1/3 innings. He gave up six hits and seven runs. Five were earned.
Kuchno earned the victory, and Bryton Trepagnier got the six-out save.
The Marauders (14-9) took two out of three from the Mets (13-10) and leave Port St. Lucie with a one-game lead in the Florida State League South Division. - team press release
Related to NY Mets, I saw an article where Wright was happy to get on road because balls he was hitting on screws were getting caught, and Collins agreed and said he lost 5 extra base hits on homestand and Grandy may have hit 7 balls already that are homers in Yank Stadium.
ReplyDeleteMy reaction? First, Wilpons are idiots. Why invest big bucks in Wright and Grandy and make them look mediocre or washed up? Second, Wright has been too passive...he (and Reyes) were the straws that stirred the Mets' drink back then. He should have warned the Wilpons that the dimensions as proposed were not acceptable to him and that he'd sign elsewhere if not done right. Instead, it is as if he accepted an arranged marriage, and now is grumbling about it. And Grandy, the guy they invested in, gets attacked by fans when if field dimensions were right, maybe they are happy with what he provides (like 6 homers rather than one by now). Some fans say glibly "it is a pitcher's park, and if you hit it on the screws, it will go out.". Which is stupid, because you should be able to get homers on balls you don't hit on the screws. In a franchise with no offensive home-grown hall of famers, Wright may miss out because of this field's dimensions! Yanks glorify all their offensive Hall of Famers...we have none. Solution? Wright and Grandy go to management and in offseason, demand they move fences in 6 to 8 more feet all around. And say THEY will pay for the $5MMM in renovations if it comes down to $.
I do not care that Met pitchers may give up more homers. I am so tired of Citi field-induced offensive malaise and all its repercussions, including a lousy long term win-loss record at home. Do something!