Game Recap: Tortugas beat St. Lucie Mets 4th straight time, 10-4

 

Martinez extends hitting streak to 10 with HR

 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (May 13, 2023) – The Daytona Tortugas continue to beat up on the St. Lucie Mets as they defeated St. Lucie 10-4 on Saturday at Jackie Robinson Ballpark for their fourth straight win in the series (Box Score).

 

Mets DH Yeral Martinez briefly tied the 1-1 with a solo home run in the second inning that extended his hitting streak to 10 games.

 

The tie was broken by the Tortugas with a five-run second inning against Mets starter Douglas Orellana. Cade Hunter led off the inning with a home run. After a pair of walks, Yan Contreras belted a two-run double that made it 4-1. A sac fly by Sal Stewart upped the lead to 5-1 and a single by Cam Collier and an error in right field scored Hector Rodriguez for a 6-1 Tortugas lead.

 

The Mets cut the deficit in half by scoring twice in the fourth. Wilfredo Lara hit a leadoff double and scored on a sac fly from Junior Tilien. A two-out RBI infield single by Kevin Villavicencio made it 6-3.

 

Contreras doubled in the bottom of the fourth and scored when Rodriguez singled and a fielding error occurred in center.

 

Lara bashed a solo home run, his third of the season, in the fifth inning to make it a 7-4 game.

 

The Tortugas answered right back in the bottom of the fifth when Hunter singled and Ariel Almonte ripped a RBI triple off reliever Layonel Ovalles. Contreras blooped a run-scoring RBI single with two outs to put Daytona up 9-4.

 

Almonte hit an opposite field homer in the sixth for the final run of the night.

 

Orellana (1-2) suffered the loss. He allowed three hits and six runs (five earned) in 1.2 innings.

 

The Mets received solid relief appearances from Jimmy Loper (2.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 5 K), Joe Joe Rodriguez (2.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 4 K) and Jean Calderon (1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K).

 

The five Mets pitchers combined for a season-high 16 strikeouts.

 

Daytona starter Chris McElvain (1-1) got the win. He gave up five hits and four runs (three earned) over 5.0 innings.

 

Lara, Martinez and Scott Ota had two hits apiece for the Mets.

 

Rodriguez, Daytona’s leadoff hitter, went 2 for 2 with three walks. He has reached based nine of his last 10 plate appearances in the series.

 

The Tortugas are 7-1 against the Mets this season after going just 5-21 against St. Lucie in 2022.

 

The Mets (8-24) and Tortugas (13-19) conclude their series at Jackie Robinson Ballpark on Sunday. First pitch is 5:00 p.m.