Threshers Hold off Late Rally to Win 7-6

WP: Estibenzon Jiménez (1-0, 0.00)

LP: Benito Garcia (1-2, 3.86)

BOX SCORE:

CLEARWATER, FL – Chad Castillo tied the game in the first and gave the Clearwater Threshers (12-6) the lead for good in the fifth as the Threshers won their fourth-straight game 7-6 over the St. Lucie Mets (5-13) on Thursday night at BayCare Ballpark. The Threshers look to secure a series victory and their longest winning streak of the season on Friday night in Clearwater.

For the second straight night, the Mets got on the board first, with their first three batters recording a hit to take an early 2-0 lead. Once again, the Threshers responded quickly in the first with Ricardo Rosario leading off the bottom of the first with a single off Mets starter Christopher Vasquez and a stolen base. Emaarion Boyd was hit by a pitch before Gabriel Rincones Jr. plated the Threshers first run of the ballgame on an RBI single to right.

Castillo tied the game on a groundout to first, scoring Boyd from third. With two outs in the inning, Jordan Dissin gave the Threshers their first lead of the game on a double to right-center that scored Rincones Jr. from second and gave the Threshers a 3-2 lead.

St. Lucie responded with a run on a two-out RBI double by Rhylan Thomas to tie the game at three. With two outs in the fifth, Castillo lifted a 2-0 pitch over the rightfield wall for a solo shot off Mets reliever Benito Garcia to give the Threshers a 4-3 advantage.

Dissin led off the sixth by reaching on an error from Mets third baseman Junior Tilien, Cade Fergus was hit by a pitch from Mets reliever Eli Ankeney and Freylin Minyety singled to load the bases. With one out in the inning, Rosario sent a fly ball to center field deep enough for Dissin to tag and score from third, doubling the Threshers lead to 5-3 on the sacrifice fly.

The eighth with a single by Dissin, and Fergus walked to put two on before an out was recorded. Erick Brito singled off Mets reliever Jimmy Loper to load the bases and Rosario walked in a run to bring the lead up to 6-3. Boyd drove in run number seven on a groundout to short to give the Threshers a four-run lead heading into the ninth.

The Mets took advantage of a two-out error by Brito, scoring three runs on back-to-back two-out hits, including a double by Junior Tilien. But Brito didn’t miss the next grounder he got, cleanly fielding and throwing the final out to first to seal a 7-6 win for the Threshers

Alex Rao allowed three runs on five hits with one walk and six strikeouts in 3.0 innings in a no-decision. Estibenzon Jiménez (1-0) tossed 2.0 scoreless innings, allowing one hit and striking out three to earn the win. Wen-Hui Pan threw 3.0 shutout frames, allowing one walk and one hit with four strikeouts. Jack Dallas allowed three unearned runs on three hits in the final frame.

Dallas let up his first three runs of the season... He still hasn’t let up an earned run in seven relief appearances... Jiménez earned the win in his season debut... Boyd drove in his first run of the season in the eighth... The Threshers have hit three home runs in each of the first three games of a series for the first time this year... Rosario has reached base and produced a run in each of his first five games with Clearwater... He had his first multi-hit game of the season... Pan is tied for fifth on the team with 11 strikeouts through his first three outings... The Threshers continue their six-game set against the St. Lucie Mets (Single-A, Mets) on Friday, April 28th at BayCare Ballpark… First pitch is at 6:30 PM... You can purchase tickets for the Threshers season at ThreshersBaseball.com/tickets or by calling 727-467-4457.