Pineda Homers, Tortugas Pound Out Ten Hits in 11-2 Win

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla—Esmith Pineda doubled and homered to lead a balanced attack for the Daytona Tortugas as they cruised to their third straight win with an 11-2 rout of the St. Lucie Mets on Saturday night at Clover Park.

Daytona (26-30) scored ten or more runs for the second night in a row as they took the lead in the series over St. Lucie (19-37), thanks to hits from seven different batters and runs scored by eight different players.

After both teams went down in order in the first, Daytona struck first against St. Lucie Saul Garcia in the second. Ariel Almonte lined a leadoff double, then Esmith Pineda walked. Garcia then fumbled a bunt by Malvin Valdez, allowing him to reach to load the bases with no outs. After a strikeout, Trey Faltine was hit by a pitch to force in the first run of the game. Johnny Ascanio followed with a sacrifice fly to bring in Pineda to make it 2-0, Daytona.

Daytona starter Dualvert Gutierrez allowed several hard-hit balls, but thanks to his defense was able to retire the first six batters he faced. He allowed a leadoff single and a two-out walk, but induced a roller to second to end the inning, and with it an outing of 3.0 scoreless innings in his Tortugas debut.

In the fourth, Daytona broke the game open. Pineda led off with a double to deep right, then went to third on a bunt single by Valdez. Diego Omana followed with single up the middle to drive home Pineda and put runners on the corners. Faltine then reached on a fielder’s choice to bring home a second run, with an error allowing everyone to reach safely. Following a sacrifice that put two men in scoring position, Sammy Stafura lined a two-run single to left that chased Garcia (1-3) and put Daytona in front 6-0.

Anyer Laureano entered for Daytona in the fourth and was sharp in a 1-2-3 inning. He began the fifth with a strikeout, then served up a solo homer to A.J. Ewing to put St. Lucie on the board. However, Laureano (2-3) struck out the next two batters, fanning four over his 2.0 innings of work to put himself in line for the victory.

In the sixth, Daytona extended the lead against Jorge De Leon as Stafura legged out a one-out double. After going to third on a wild pitch, he came home when Ricardo Cabrera ripped a triple to left-center. Cabrera then came home on another wild pitch as the lead grew to 8-1.

Ben Brutti came out of the Daytona bullpen for the sixth and labored hard, allowing two hits, walking one, and hitting a batter in the inning, with an error committed. Pineda, though, helped to soften the blow with a strike to third, throwing out Kevin Villavicencio trying to go first-to-third. He did issued a bases-loaded walk to Estarling Mercado to force in a run, but induced a flyout by Ewing with the bases loaded to end the inning.

From there, the Tortugas extended the lead as Pineda led off the seventh by blasting De Leon’s second pitch of the inning over the left-center field fence for his third home run of the season.

Two more runs scored in the eighth as Stafura was plunked and Carter Graham drew a walk. After a balk moved both runners up 90 feet, Almonte then legged out an infield hit to score Stafura. A wild pitch pitch scored Graham to put the Tortugas ahead 11-2.

Brutti settled down after the sixth. Though he allowed a base runner in each of the final three innings, the Mets never had a runner past first after the sixth as Brutti threw 4.0 innings of one-run ball to secure his first professional save, as well as an 11-2 victory.

The Tortugas will play finish the series against the St. Lucie Mets on Sunday afternoon. Both teams’ starters are still to be determined. First pitch from Clover Park in Port St. Lucie is scheduled for 12:10 p.m. with pregame coverage on the Tortugas Radio Network and MiLB.tv/Bally Live with Brennan Mense beginning at noon.