PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (July 28, 2018) - Jake Fraley and Jesús Sánchez both had three hits and drove in multiple runs to lead the Charlotte Stone Crabs to an exciting 9-8 victory over the St. Lucie Mets Saturday night at First Data Field. Fraley reached base in his first
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (July 28, 2018) - Jake Fraley and Jesús Sánchez both had three hits and drove in multiple runs to lead the Charlotte Stone Crabs to an exciting 9-8 victory over the St. Lucie Mets Saturday night at First Data Field.
Fraley reached base in his first four plate appearances and drove in four runs while Sanchez clobbered his team-leading tenth home run of the season.
The Stone Crabs (53-47, 19-14) surrendered three early leads but took the lead for good in the top of the sixth. With the game tied 6-6, Lucius Fox walked before stealing second base. After Tristan Gray was hit by a pitch, Sanchez beat out an infield single to allow Fox to score and make it 7-6. Fraley followed by driving a triple to center to score both runners and make it 9-6 Charlotte.
St. Lucie (40-61, 13-21) catcher Dan Rizzie delivered a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning but the Mets fell one run short.
Stone Crabs relievers Trevor Charpie, Zack Mozingo and Hunter Schryver combined to put up three zeroes and seal the win. Schryver struck out the final two batters with the tying run in scoring position to earn the save.
The Stone Crabs brought the bats early against Mets starter Gabriel Llanes. After a single and a walk, Gray singled to right to make it 1-0 before Fraley doubled down the line to bring the score to 2-0.
After the Mets rallied to take a 3-2 lead in the top of fourth, Sanchez tied the game with his solo home run to right. After a walk and a single. Joey Roach pulled a base hit to right to make it 4-3 Stone Crabs. Kevin Padlo followed with a single to left to push the Charlotte lead to 5-3.
However, St. Lucie battled back in the bottom of the inning. With two outs, Todd Frazier drove home a run with a double against Stone Crabs lefty Kenny Rosenberg (9-1). The next batter was Michael Paez, who pummeled a two-run homer to left to tie the game at six.
Saturday's win pushes the Stone Crabs' record to a season-best six game above five-hundred.
Charlotte will go for the series win Sunday morning at 11 a.m. José Mujica (1-0, 4.91) makes the start for the Stone Crabs against Anthony Kay (2-2, 1.42) of St. Lucie. Coverage starts at 10:45 a.m. on the Stone Crabs Baseball Network.
