Mets winning streak ends at 4 with 6-1 loss to Tortugas

DAYONTA BEACH, Fla. (August 16, 2024) – The Daytona Tortugas snapped the St. Lucie Mets four-game winning streak with a 6-1 victory on Friday night at Jackie Robinson Ballpark.

The Tortugas scored five unanswered runs over their final three innings at the plate to take the lead and pull away.

The Mets pitching staff, which walked just 10 batters over the first 32 innings of the series, walked six batters over the final three innings. Four of those six walked batters came around to score.

The game was tied 1-1 entering the sixth. Yohairo Cuevas made it to third base as the go-ahead run with no outs in the top of the inning but the Mets could not get him home. Sammy Stafura walked to start the bottom of the inning and he would go on to score on a RBI single by Esmith Pineda off Estarlin Escalante to put Daytona up 2-1.

The Tortugas worked three walks and collected three hits against Brayhans Barreto in the seventh inning. Ricardo Cabrera and Stafura hit back-to-back RBI singles to make it 4-1. After a walk reloaded the bases, Pineda hit a run-scoring infield single for a 5-1 lead.

Cabrera belted a two-out RBI double off Jeremy Peguero in the eighth inning for the final run.

The Mets scored their only run in the third inning on two-out RBI double by Cuevas. It was his third double in the last two games.

Mets starter Joel Diaz pitched well over 5.0 innings. The only run he allowed was a home run to Pineda on the first pitch of the second inning. Diaz struck out six, including four looking in a six-batter span.

Daytona reliever Dualvert Gutierrez got the win by pitching 4.0 shutout innings.

Cuevas went 2 for 3 with a double, single and walk. The Mets were limited to five hits and went 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position.

The Mets (16-28, 38-72) and Tortugas (23-20, 54-55) play the fifth game of their series at Jackie Robinson Ballpark on Saturday. First pitch is 6:35 p.m.