St. lucie 4 - Dunedin 3

Michael Fulmer blanked Dunedin over six innings and the St. Lucie Mets hung on to beat the Blue Jays 4-3 on Wednesday afternoon at Tradition Field.

The Mets jumped out to a 4-0 lead on Eudy Pina’s two-out, two-run double in the sixth, but the D-Jays would not go quietly.

Gustavo Pierre singled in a run with two outs in the eighth and Christian Lopes followed with a two-run double off of Beck Wheeler to cut the Mets lead to 4-3.

T.J. Chism entered and stranded Lopes as the tying run on second when he got Peter Mooney to ground out.

Chism retired the D-Jays in order in the ninth to earn his fourth save.

With the win the Mets improved to 13-3 at home in the second half. They have won two in a row since returning to Tradition Field after they dropped their last eight games on a 1-9 road trip.

Fulmer and D-Jays starter Matt Boyd were in a pitchers duel early. Each tossed three scoreless innings to start the game.

The Met broke through in the fourth. Cam Maron drew a one-out walk and advanced to third on L.J. Mazzilli’s hit. After Jared King struck out for the second out of the inning, Gavin Cecchini came up and hit a grounder to Pierre at third. Pierre’s throw to first pulled Kevin Patterson off the bag and allowed Maron to score the first run of the game.

In the fifth, Eudy Pina doubled with one out and Wilfredo Tovar followed with another double to the left-center gap to bring in Pina and make it 2-0.

Boyd, who took the loss, gave up four hits and two runs, one earned, in five innings. He entered the game 5-1 with a 0.99 ERA in 11 starts. Both his losses have come against the Mets.

That was enough offense for Fulmer. He limited the Blue Jays to four hits in six innings. He walked four but struck out five.

The one jam Fulmer ran into came in the sixth inning. Shane Opitz came up with a hit to put runners at second and third, but Fulmer settled down to strike out Santiago Nessy for the third time to end the inning and strand the tying run in scoring position.

Fulmer is now 3-0 in his last three home starts and has not given up a run in his last 19 innings at home.

Ben White took over for Boyd in the sixth. Cecchini doubled with one out, and after Albert Cordero struck out, Gilbert Gomez reached on an infield single to put runners on the corners. Pina then hit a pitch off the end of the bat that just dropped fair down the right field line between Patterson and Lopes. Cecchini and Gomez scored to make it 4-0.

The D-Jays loaded the bases against Wheeler in the seventh, but Nick Baligod grounded into an inning ending double play.

Wheeler gave up three runs in the eighth to give the Mets a scare, but Chism was able to retire the last four batters he faced to end the game.

Pina went 2 for 4 with two doubles and two RBIs.

Mazzilli also went 2 for 4.

Lopes was 3 for 4 from the ninth spot in the Dunedin order. - team press release