Miracle blow lead, lose to Crabs in 10th
After a back-and-forth game for the second night in a row resulting in extra-innings, the Charlotte Stone Crabs came out on top this time on Tim Beckham’s solo home run in the top of the 10th to beat the Fort Myers Miracle 7-6 Tuesday night at Hammond Stadium.
After an 0-for-4 night at the plate, Beckham hit his first home run in a Stone Crabs uniform off Miracle reliever Michael Allen, who was charged with the loss.
Tim Rafferty, who allowed no hits in the eighth and ninth innings, picked up the win for Charlotte. Zach Quate pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to earn the save.
The Miracle (3-8), who prevailed in the 10th inning Monday night on a walk-off double by second baseman Drew Thompson, are now 3-2 against the Stone Crabs (6-4) this season.
The Miracle put together their strongest effort of the season at the plate, scoring six runs on nine hits, but their pitching could not hold the lead late. After scoring six unanswered runs after a 4-0 fourth-inning deficit, Michael Allen allowed two eighth-innings runs to the Stone Crabs before giving up the go-ahead home run in the 10th.
The Miracle bullpen started the night retiring the first 11 batters they faced. Shooter Hunt pitched three perfect innings, striking out six and five in a row to finish his night. Michael Allen entered in the eighth, and struck out his first batter to make the bullpen strikeout streak six in a row.
After inducing a groundout to Kyeong Kang to make it 12 consecutive batters retired, Allen walked the next two batters before pinch-hitter Jake Jeffries slapped a double to the gap in right-center that tied the game 6-6.
The Crabs got on the board first, scoring four runs in the fourth against Miracle starter Michael Tarsi. The Miracle scored four runs in the bottom of the fourth against Charlotte starter Matt Moore to tie it up.
After a single and three consecutive walks with one out by the left-hander, the last to Jair Fernandez that brought the first run in, Chris Cates hit a bases-clearing double to tie it 4-4.
The game remained tied into the seventh inning when the Miracle scored two runs with two outs. Evan Bigley broke the tie with an opposite-field base hit to score Yangervis Solarte from third, Bigley’s first RBI of the season. Ramon Santana followed with a bloop single to right to score Drew Thompson, making it 6-4.
The rubber match of the three-game series is Wednesday night with Bobby Lanigan (0-1, 0.84 ERA) making his third start of the year for the Miracle.