Tampa Bay 4 - St. Lucie 2

A furious rally by the St. Lucie Mets in the ninth inning came to a frustrating halt as the Tampa Yankees hung on for a 4-2 win in the series finale on Thursday at Tradition Field.

The Mets entered the final frame down 4-1 but the first four batters of the inning reached. Colton Plaia’s RBI single off of Angel Rincon cut the deficit to 4-2 and reloaded the bases with nobody out.

However, Rincon struck out Champ Stuart, then got Jeff McNeil to hit into a game-ending double play to finish off the Mets. McNeil came to the plate with three hits in the game and a .348 batting average which in the highest in the FSL among active players.

Rincon, who worked the ninth inning on Wednesday and Monday, earned his third save of the series and fifth of the year. The Yankees took three of four from the Mets, who have lost eight of their last nine games.

Bobby Parnell made his final rehab start in St. Lucie. He pitched the first innings and gave up a two-out single and RBI double.

Logan Taylor took over in the second and pitched 5.2 innings. He gave up a run in the second and Miguel Andujar hit a solo home run in the third to make it 3-0. From there, Taylor retired 11 of the next 12 batters.

After that sequence, the Yankees started the seventh with three straight hits, including and RBI single by Kyle Higashioka to make it 4-0.

Meanwhile, the Mets couldn’t muster anything on offense against Jonathan Holder. Holder kept the Mets off the scoreboard through the first six innings. Finally, Matt Oberste doubled off of him in the seventh. Holder was removed from the game and reliever Jonny Drozd gave up a two-out RBI single to Colton Plaia to make it 4-1.

Drozd pitched around a single and a double in a scoreless eighth.

Holder got the win. His final line was 6.1 innings, five hits, one run, no walks and three strikeouts.

Taylor went 5.2 innings and gave up three runs on six hits while walking three and striking out five.

Kelly Secrest retired all seven batters he faced in relief for the Mets.

McNeil and Plaia each had three hits for the Mets. Plaia had two RBIs.

Michael Conforto doubled for the third straight game. Team press release