Martinez, Brutti Brilliant, But Miscue Mars 2-0 Defeat

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla—Juan Martinez and Ben Brutti both turned in their longest outings of the season, but a second-inning throwing error brought home the only runs of the game as the St. Lucie Mets spoiled the Rumberos de Daytona’s party in a 2-0 loss on Friday night at Jackie Robinson Ballpark.

St. Lucie (9-10) evened up the series by holding Daytona (10-9) to just three hits as the Tortugas’ alter-ego, the Rumberos, were blanked for the fourth time this season.

After a scoreless first, St. Lucie took advantage of a defensive miscue from Daytona. Daytona starter Martinez erased a leadoff single with a double play, but immediately found himself back in trouble by allowing a double and a walk. After a balk moved both runners into scoring position, he induced a ground ball to short. However, the throw to first was errant, scoring both runners to stake St. Lucie to a 2-0 lead.

St. Lucie starter Zach Thornton faced the minimum over the first two innings, but his command wavered in the third as he issued two walks to put a pair of runners aboard with one out. The Rumberos, though, bounced into consecutive fielder’s choices to end the inning.

After that, both starters locked in. Martinez followed the error by retiring the final ten batters he faced as he worked a season-high 5.0 innings, allowing the two unearned tallies on three hits and one walk with one strikeout.

Thornton (1-1), meanwhile, dominated Daytona after the third-inning hiccups, as he struck out three in the fourth, with one of them reaching, before throwing a 1-2-3 fifth to cap off his 5.0 scoreless innings to earn the win.

Brutti entered in the sixth and immediately ran into trouble. Marco Vargas led off with an infield single, then promptly stole second and third. After a strikeout, a bouncing ball to second with the infield in saw Vargas break for the plate, but he was thrown out by Johnny Ascanio. A twisting fly to right followed that Ariel Almonte couldn’t catch off his shoetops, but he recovered to throw a strike to the plate to throw out Jesus Baez to end the inning.

Jawilme Ramirez entered for the Mets in the sixth and set down the first six batters he faced over two perfect innings to open his outing. On the other side, Brutti settled down, working around a two-out double in the seventh before throwing a 1-2-3 eighth.

In the bottom of the eighth, Daytona threatened against Ramirez. Yerlin Confidan drew a leadoff walk and went to third on a one-out single by Ascanio. However, Ramirez induced a foulout and Ricardo Cabrera couldn’t extend his hitting streak, grounding out to third to end the inning, and with it, his ten-game streak.

Brutti followed with a scoreless ninth to finish off 4.0 shutout innings with three strikeouts, then Alan Perdomo entered in the bottom half for St. Lucie. Alfredo Duno led off with a double, before Daytona was on the wrong end of two bang-bang plays at first for the first two outs. Perdomo then ended the game with a strikeout to secure a 2-0 win for St. Lucie.

The Tortugas will play game five against the St. Lucie Mets on Saturday evening. Daytona will start RHP Jose Franco (0-0, 2.79) against St. Lucie RHP Kade Morris (0-0, 1.42). Tomorrow night, the first 1,000 fans through the gates will leave with a replica of Jackie Robinson Ballpark presented by Brown & Brown. Plus, it will be Bark at the Park. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. with gates opening at 5:30. Pregame coverage on the Tortugas Radio network with Brennan Mense begins at 6:20 p.m.