Taylor Strong, Conforto and Ruiz Provides 9th Inning Heroics

St. Lucie Mets @ Palm Beach Cardinals

May 20, 2015

Logan Taylor @ Luke Weaver

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
St. Lucie	1	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	1		4	12	2
Palm Beach	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	0		3	8	1

W: Secrest (3-1, 3.94 ERA); L: Lucas (2-2, 0.81 ERA); S: Morris (6, 1.80 ERA)

MiLB.com Boxscore

He'll be in the B-Mets lineup soon enough

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Logan Taylor (5.75 ERA) – 6.2 IP, 7 H, 3 R, BB, 7 SO, 8 GO: 3 FO

Kelly Secrest – 1.1 IP, 1 GO: 1 FO, 2 IR – 0 S

Akeel Morris – 1 IP, H, 3 GO

Batters

Yeixon Ruiz – 3-5, 2 R, 2B (2), SB (3)

Jeff McNeil – 2-4, 2B (3), BB

Michael Conforto – 2-5, 2 R, HR (7), RBI (24), SO

Maikis De La Cruz – 1-4, 2 RBI (20), SF, SB (5), 3 SO

Dominic Smith – 1-3, 2B (7), RBI (14), BB, 2 SO

Amed Rosario – 1-4, 2B (10), SO

Jhoan Urena – 1-4, SO

Colton Plaia – 1-4, SO

Recap

           

The St. Lucie Mets won the rubber match of the series in Palm Beach thanks to a strong start from Logan Taylor, and some 9^th inning heroics from Michael Conforto.

The Mets would jump out to a 1-0 lead in the 1^st, although they set up for a bigger inning. Yeixon Ruiz singled, and then went to 3B on a double from Jeff McNeil – McNeil hit the ball to the RF wall, where it was dropped – which brought Conforto to the plate in a big opportunity. He’d strike out swinging. Maikis De La Cruz followed with a sac fly hit to CF that made it 1-0.

The Mets threatened for more in the 2^nd, as Jhoan Urena, Colton Plaia, and McNeil all singled, but Urena would be thrown out at home on a nice throw from the right fielder.

Some top prospects would pair up to make it 2-0 in the 3^rd, as Conforto led off with a single, and then Dominic Smith doubled him in, his 6^th double since 5/12.

The Cardinals scored all three of their runs in the bottom of the 3^rd, when five straight batters reached with one out: single, walk, single, single, force attempt fielding error from Amed Rosario.

The Mets threatened to tie it right back up in the 4^th, putting two on with two outs for Conforto, but he’d hit a fly out to CF.

They were able to tie it up in the 7^th, when Ruiz led off with a double, and then came home to score on a two-out single from Maikis.

To this point, Taylor had been throwing his best start for St. Lucie, allowing only two singles outside of the 3^rd inning, working a perfect 1^st, 5^th, and 6^th. He’d pick up his seventh strikeout to start the 7^th, but then allowed consecutive infield single before picking up the second out on a fly out to RF. With the lefty coming up in a tie game, the Mets would bring in Kelly Secrest to finish the 7^th, and he quickly got a groundout. In total, 6 of 7 hits Taylor allowed came on groundballs, and 4 of them were infield hits (plus the error on a groundball), which means that 21 of 29 batters who faced Taylor tonight had their at bat end in a groundball or strikeout (plus two pop outs).

Rosario led off the 8^th with a double lined into CF, but the next three batters went down: strikeout, pop out, groundout.

Secrest stayed in for a clean 8^th, picking up two pop outs on the infield along the way, which left the game tied entering the 9^th.

Ruiz and McNeil would hit groundouts to start the inning, and then Michael Conforto fell behind 0-2 against Josh Lucas. Lucas came into the start with a 0.42 ERA over 21.1 IP, with 0 homeruns allowed, and a 20 K: 4 BB ratio. Specifically, lefties were 6-31 off him, with 0 extra base hits and 10 K: 3 BB. Conforto hadn’t hit a homerun since April 26^th, but he had hit multiple doubles off the RF wall that were reportedly influenced by the wind, and McNeil’s double to RF had reportedly been knocked down by the wind earlier in the game – the box score says 13 MPH winds, R to L. So, behind 0-2, and with the wind blowing in from RF, Conforto launched a blast over the LF wall to give St Lucie a 4-3 lead.

The Mets had been double barrel action in the bullpen, but Akeel Morris was brought in for a chance at his third save in four nights. But Morris quickly found himself in trouble, as he booted a comebacker, which allowed Robelys Reyes to reach with nobody out. The next batter would sac Reyes over to 2B, putting the tying run in scoring position. The Cardinals would pick up the big hit they needed, as Juan Herrera lined a single into CF, but Yeixon Ruiz would make a huge throw home to nab Reyes at the plate, preserving the lead. Morris wasn’t out of it yet though, as Herrera had advanced to 2B on the throw home, and Palm Beach had the top of the lineup coming up. But their leadoff batter hit a groundout to Dominic Smith to end the game.

Post-game notes: Yeixon Ruiz has been getting more burn in the leadoff spot and CF lately for the Mets, which are the spots normally reserved for Champ Stuart. It hasn’t been an everyday thing yet, but he’s been coming through lately. He seemed adequate at SS last year with Savannah, so he can apparently play 7 positions. Conforto now has a hit in 7 of 8 games, with 5 doubles and a blast over 36 PA, for a .333/.389/.576 slash – I look forward to his coming promotion, and selfishly hope we don’t have to wait for the FSL All-Star game. When Dominic Smith returned from an illness, and then an ankle injury, he was as cold as ice, going 0-22 over his first 6 games back. In 11 games since, he has 6 doubles and a .317/.378/.463 slash (plus one stolen base!). He will still need to start hitting some homeruns, but that is great output from a 19-year old in the Florida State League. Jeff McNeil had his 17^th multi-hit game tonight, in his 34^th start (he came in as a pinch-runner one game early in the season, getting 0 PA). Amed Rosario’s 10 doubles are tied for second most in the Florida State League (with 7 other players).

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— Universe Today (@universetoday) May 20, 2015