Game Recap: Flying Tigers Hold Off St. Lucie Mets, 4-3

 

St. Lucie 4-game winning streak snapped 

LAKELAND, Fla. (August 17, 2022) – The Lakeland Flying Tigers held off a ninth inning rally by the St. Lucie Mets to win 4-3 in a game that ended with a controversial call on Wednesday at Joker Marchant Stadium. (Box Score)

With two outs in the ninth and Blaine McIntosh on third base as the tying run, Chase Estep grounded a ball off first baseman Justice Bigbie. Lakeland second baseman Cristian Santana backed up the play and threw to pitcher Blake Holub covering first base and the field umpire called Estep out at the bag despite the Mets arguing Estep beat the throw, which would have scored McIntosh to tie the game. 

The loss snapped a four-game winning streak for the Mets. Lakeland snapped a six-game losing streak to St. Lucie. 

The Mets jumped out to an early 3-0 lead. They worked three walks against Jackson Jobe in the second inning and knocked Jobe out of the game when McIntosh beat out an infield single with the bases loaded to make it 1-0. 

Tanner Murphy and Brad Malm hit a pair of sac flies off reliever Carlos Marcano in the third inning. 

The Flying Tigers tied the game with three runs against Mets starter Franklin Sanchez in the third. Santana hit a RBI single for the first run, then later in the inning with two outs, Manuel Sequera hit a 3-2 pitch for a game-tying homer. 

Lakeland took the lead for good in the fourth inning without a hit. Adinso Reyes took a leadoff walk from Jace Beck (0-1). Reyes went to second on a Beck wild pitch, advanced to third on a ground out and scored on another Beck wild pitch to put the Flying Tigers up 4-3. 

Flying Tigers (3-2) reliever Cam Brown fired four shutout innings with six strikeouts to get the win. 

Holub was credited with a scoreless eighth and ninth for his fourth save. 

McIntosh went 2 for 3 with two singles and two walks. He was the only player in the game with multiple hits. 

The Mets (65-44, 25-19) and Flying Tigers (51-56, 20-22) play the third game of their series at Joker Marchant Stadium on Thursday. First pitch is 6:30 p.m.