St. Lucie 10 - Charlotte 5

The St. Lucie Mets kept their first half championship and playoff hopes alive in a must-win game by clobbering the Charlotte Stone Crabs 10-5 on Tuesday.

The Mets still trail the Fort Myers Miracle by 0.5 games in the Florida State League South Division. Fort Myers beat Bradenton 4-2 earlier on Tuesday to stay a half game ahead of the surging Mets, who have won five in row.

It all comes down to the final game of the FSL first half on Wednesday. The Mets need to beat the Stone Crabs and have the Miracle lose to Bradenton to win the first half and clinch a playoff spot. If any other scenario plays out, Fort Myers wins the half.

The Mets (40-29) will host the Stone Crabs at Tradition Field at 6:30 p.m. The Miracle host the Marauders at Hammond Stadium at 7:05 p.m.

It looked dicey early for the Mets on Tuesday. Charlotte scored two runs in the first and Josh Sale’s RBI double with no outs in the second gave the Stone Crabs a 3-0 lead. Mets starter Luis Cessa would be pulled with two out in the second inning.

But the Mets responded in their half of the second. Maikis De La Cruz and Yeixon Ruiz both hits ground outs that plated runs to cut the deficit to 3-2.

The Mets blew the game open in the third with seven runs on five hits. The Stone Crabs helped out by committing two errors, and starter Blake Snell walked two batters and threw two wild pitches.

Jairo Perez tied the game 3-3 with an RBI sac fly. Then with runners at first and second, Aderlin Rodriguez grounded back to Snell for what looked like a sure out. But with the sun in his eyes, first baseball Patrick Leonard ducked on Snell’s throw to first and it went over his head. T.J. Rivera scored to give the Mets a 4-3 lead and Brandon Nimmo and Rodriguez advanced to third and second, respectively.

Then wheels came off for the Crabs. De La Cruz drove in a run on a grounder to short that was booted by Leonardo Reginatto, Eudy Pina doubled in a run, Ruiz singled in a run and Dilson Herrera drove in Ruiz with a double. By the end of the third, the Mets led 9-3.

Reliever Bruedlin Suero balked in a run in the fourth to complete the scoring for the Mets.

Meanwhile, Seth Lugo provided the Mets stability on the mound. He recorded the final out of the second and proceeded to strike out seven over 5 1/3 innings. His only mistake was giving up a two-run home run to Justin O’Connor that made it 10-5.
Julian Hilario recorded the final six outs of the game to finish off the Crabs.

Ruiz led the Mets offensively, going 4 for 5. Herrera, Perez, Pina and Cam Maron all had two-hit games. - team press release