Cardinals defeat Mets 5-1, take 5 of 6 in series

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (July 28, 2024) – The Palm Beach Cardinals defeated the St. Lucie Mets 5-1 on Sunday afternoon in the series finale at Clover Park. The Cardinals won five of six games in the series.

Palm Beach starter Ixan Henderson held the Mets to one run and three hits over 5.0 innings to get the win. He walked two and struck out two.

Four Cardinals relievers – Hunter Hayes, Zack Showalter, Augusto Calderon and Henry Gomez – each pitched a scoreless inning to finish out a great series on the mound for the Palm Beach pitching staff.

The Cardinals and Mets exchanged runs in the first inning. Palm Beach was able to take control in the third inning when they rattled off four hits and drew a walk against Mets reliever Brayhans Barreto. Jose Cordoba and Lizandro Espinoza hit RBI singles in the inning. The Cardinals also executed a double steal of home and second base. They departed the inning with a 4-1 lead.

Barreto ended the third inning by inducing a double play and that started a streak of retiring nine batters in a row. However, the Cardinals strung together three consecutive two-out hits in the sixth inning and scored a run on Trey Paige’s double to make it 5-1.

Diego Mosquera and Kevin Villavicencio led the Mets at the plate with two hits each. Villavicencio and Yohairo Cuevas hit doubles.

Mets relievers Cristofer Gomez and Alfred Vega both pitched a perfect inning with two strikeouts.

Starter Zach Thornton limited the Cardinals to one run over 2.1 innings. He struck out three.

The Mets (9-21, 31-65) are off on Monday. They return to the diamond on Tuesday when they start a six-game road series at the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels. First pitch at Hammond Stadium on Tuesday is 7:05 p.m.