The St. Lucie Mets entered their three game series with the Charlotte Stone Crabs, South Division Leaders, looking to get back in first.
On Monday and trailing by 1.5 games, the Mets sent RHP Kevin Smith to the mound, fresh off 5.2 innings on June 26th, where he allowed one hit, one run and struck out six.
Smith responded to the challenge by tossing six innings, allowing just one run on three hits, and struck out nine batters.
As for the offense, the Mets managed just one run over the first six innings, to remain in a 1-1 tie with the Stone Crabs. Then in the top of the 7th inning, St. Lucie added a run on a sac-fly off the bat of Matt Winaker to put the Mets ahead 1-0.
The Mets finally got the break they needed as they added four runs in the top of the ninth, highlighted by a two-RBI triple from Winaker, an RBI ground rule double from Mitch Ghelfi and an RBI double off the bat of Nick Meyer. Yeizo Campos closed the door in the ninth to help seal the victory for the Mets to pull within .5 games of first.
July 2, 2019
On Tuesday, the Mets were looking to get back in the top spot in the South Division and with a scoreless tie in the top of the third, St Lucie scored two runs to take an early 2-0 lead. Jacob Zanon doubled, scoring Dan Rizzie and Hansel Moreno.
But the Stone Crabs were not ready to relinquish the top spot as they scored four in the third inning, one in the fourth, two in the fifth and two in the seventh to run away with a 9-3 victory. The Mets managed just one more run, in the top of the 6th, with an RBI double off the bat of Jeremy Vasquez.
The victory gave the Stone Crabs some breathing room, pushing the Mets back again to 1.5 games out of first.
Both teams take the field on Wednesday night, with first pitch scheduled for 6:30 PM at Charlotte Sports Park.
The Mets look to gain an advantage, win the series and pull within .5 game of first and the Stone Crabs will look to win their second straight game and go up 2.5 games in the standings on St. Lucie.
