Game Recap: Tortugas blast St. Lucie Mets, 8-1

 

Castillo hits first home run in loss

 

ST. LUCIE METS PRESS RELEASE: DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (May 12, 2023) – The Daytona Tortugas beat the St. Lucie Mets handily, 8-1, on Friday night at Jackie Robinson Ballpark (Box Score).

Daytona scored single runs in the second and third innings to go up 2-0. Despite a lack of offense, the Mets were hanging in the game. That changed in the sixth and seventh innings when the Tortugas scored three runs in each inning against Mets reliever Benito Garcia to blow the game wide open.

 

Daytona starter Kevin Abel pitched 4.0 scoreless innings and gave up just one hit. He became the third straight Tortugas starter to shut out the Mets. The Mets have only scored against a Daytona starter in one of the seven games between the teams this season.

 

Jonathan Harmon pitched the final 5.0 innings to get the win. He scattered three hits and gave up one run on a solo homer by Luis Castillo.

 

The Tortguas scored their first run in the second inning off Mets starter Saul Garcia when Garcia threw a wild pitch that allowed Cade Hunter to score.

 

Garcia retired the first two batters of the third inning but a double by Ex-St. Lucie Met Hector Rodriguez and a RBI single by Carlos Jorge made it 2-0. Garcia would go on to strike out Ariel Almonte with the bases loaded to avoid further damage.

 

Garcia made a solid start, allowing two runs on five hits over 4.0 innings. He walked just one and struck out five.

 

Michael Krauza pitched a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts in the fifth on MiLB rehab assignment.

 

The game slipped out of reach for the Mets starting in the sixth when Victor Acosta laced a RBI single, Yerlin Confidan mashed a run-scoring triple and Andrew Salcedo hit a hard sac fly off Benito Garcia to make it a 5-0 Tortugas lead.

 

Cam Collier ripped a RBI double in the seventh. Another sac fly by Hunter made it 7-0. Finally a RBI single from Almonte extended the lead to 8-0 knocked Garcia out of the game.

 

Garcia was charged with six runs on six hits in 1.1 innings.

 

The Mets avoided the shutout when Castillo hit his home run to the opposite field with one out in the eighth. It was his first home run of the season.

 

Luke Bartnicki chipped in with 1.2 scoreless innings of relief. He struck out four.

 

Daytona was led by Rodriguez, who played for St. Lucie last year and was traded to the Reds organization as part of the Tyler Naquin deal. Rodriguez went 4 for 5 with two doubles and two runs from the leadoff spot.

 

Jorge, Almonte and Confidan had two hits apiece.

 

For the Mets, Junior Tilien went 2 for 4 and Scott Ota went 2 for 3 with a walk.

 

The Mets (8-23) and Tortugas (12-19) play the fifth game of their series at Jackie Robinson Ballpark on Saturday. First pitch is 6:35 p.m.