Blast off!
Published 12:00 am Friday, June 4, 2010
What started out as a Dixie League pitcher’s duel, finished as a blow out thanks to two swings of the bat.
The Mets and the Cardinals got together on Friday night, both looking to improve their standings before the season runs out.
Coming off a tough Thursday night loss, the Mets were looking for a bounce back game – and that’s what it got.
The team in orange and blue cruised to a 13-4 victory, with eight of those runs scoring thanks to two Chandler Avant grand slams in back-to-back plate appearances.
“I was just trying to get a base hit both time,” Avant said after the game.
“I didn’t know the second one was gone until I saw it go over the fence.”
The two slams were the first two home runs of the season for Avant, who finished 2-3 with eight RBIs and scored four times.
As for the rest of the game, the Mets took a 2-0 lead early after scoring a run in each of the first two innings.
On the mound for the Mets was Chase Hartley, who threw six innings while only surrendering three runs on five hits.
The Cardinals got on the board in the third inning when Xavious Burden hit a ball into the center field gap, reaching second base while Tripp Blackmon came all the way from first to score.
The team was unable to push any more runners across the plate however in the bottom half of the inning, as the Mets had a 2-1 lead heading into the fourth.
After scoring another run, Will Price put the Mets up 4-1 with his own RBI-double in the top of the six.
That was the same inning Avant hit his first grand slam, as the Mets would score five runs in the inning.
The Cardinals would answer back, thanks to a Baylor Barnes bloop single to right field that scored three runs, cutting the lead to 8-3.
Avant’s slam in the next inning all but ended the game and the Cardinals’ chances of coming back.
The win improved the Mets to 3-5 on the season, while the loss dropped the Cardinals to 3-4.
“Hopefully, this will be something for us to build off of going into the last couple games of the year,” Mets’ head coach Sam Kitchens said following the win.
“I thought Hartley was fantastic and we got some really good defensive plays as well – everyone stepped up (Friday night).”