Ft. Myers 4 - St. Lucie 2

A furious ninth inning rally by the St. Lucie Mets fell short and the Fort Myers Miracle hung on to beat the Mets 4-2 on Thursday at Tradition Field.

The Mets entered the ninth trailing 4-1 but cut the deficit in half on a two-out RBI single by Maikis De La Cruz that scored Jeff McNeil.

Matt Obertste followed with a double to put runners at second and third, but Madison Boer ended the rally by getting Amed Rosario to ground out to short.

It was the eighth loss for the Mets in 12 games since opening the season 3-0. They fell below .500 (7-8) for the first time this season.

Miracle starter Chih-Wei Hu, who shut out the Mets over seven innings with 10 strikeouts last week in Fort Myers, was nearly as good on Thursday. He gave up solo home run to Champ Stuart in the first, but that was all he allowed.

Hu retired 15 of the last 17 batters he faced. The only two batters who reached base were De La Cruz and Stuart on infield singles. Hu allowed one run on five hits in six innings with four strikeouts.

Marcos Molina was the tough luck loser for the Mets. In a 1-1 game in the fifth he appeared to get a double play, but Rosario couldn’t get the ball out of his glove at second and made a bad throw that skipped away from first base.

Instead of two outs and the bases clear, Engelb Vielma made it to second base with one out. After Molina struck out Niko Goodrum, Aderling Mejia stroked a two-out RBI single to center to bring in Vielma put the Miracle up for good.

Mitch Garver followed with another RBI base hit and the Miracle ended the fifth with a 3-1 lead.

The Miracle manufactured a key insurance run in the ninth. Logan Wade worked a leadoff walk from Mike Hepple, stole second base, tagged to third on a deep fly out and came home on Vielma’s sac fly to make it 4-1.

For the Mets, Stuart and De La Cruz had two-hit apiece.

Vielma went 2 for 3 with a triple, bunt single and run scored for Fort Myers. - team press release