Stone Crabs Drop Pair to Cardinals

A strange day of baseball did not hold much good fortune for the scuffling Charlotte Stone Crabs, who dropped a pair of games to the Palm Beach Cardinals on Friday at Roger Dean Stadium.

The first order of business was to complete a weather suspended game from April 11 that was stopped in the bottom of the second inning. Frank De Los Santos resumed his start with a 2-0 lead, but the bases loaded and nobody out in the Cardinal half of the second.

Palm Beach quickly went to work unloading the bases in a four-run frame that featured three errors by the Charlotte defenders. After a sacrifice fly off the bat of Oliver Marmol got the Cards on the board, Nick Derba and Alex Castellanos each collected run-scoring singles. The final run of the frame came courtesy of a throwing error by Tim Beckham.

De Los Santos (4-2) went seven innings and allowed five runs on the night – though just three were earned – on six hits. The lefty walked five and struck out seven in taking the loss.

Friday’s action does not qualify as a true doubleheader. All of the statistics in the completion of the suspended game are applied retroactively to the date on which the game began. Thus, no hitting streaks or other associated happenings would be affected by the outcome of that game.

Palm Beach took a 4-2 victory in the second game of the night, highlighted by a three-run first inning that allowed them overcome an early Charlotte lead.

Because of the league’s rules regarding multiple games in the same day, the second contest was scheduled to last just seven innings.

Stephen Vogt finished 1-for-2 with a single that extended his hitting streak 12-games, while Henry Wrigley went 2-for-3 with an RBI in the losing effort.

The Stone Crabs turned to Mike Jarman (1-2) for a spot start in that second game. He lasted three innings and allowed four earned runs on six hits, walked a pair and struck out two men.

Losing the late game means the Stone Crabs (17-17) have now dropped four consecutive games and six of their last seven. The two wins by Palm Beach (20-14) coupled with a victory for the Bradenton Marauders (20-14) pushes the Stone Crabs three games back in the standings and drops them to .500 on the year.

Charlotte wraps up the road trip with one more game against the Palm Beach Cardinals on Saturday. Chris Andujar (2-1) will take on Arquimedes Nieto (2-1). First pitch is scheduled for 6:05 p.m.