🌴 Teal Turns the Tide: Palms Rally Late to Take Opener from Tampa, 7–4

 By Vin Castillo, Coca-Cola Palms Park

Under a heavy South Florida sky and dressed in their teal “South Florida Nights” alternates, the Miami Palms looked like a team ready to flip the page.

It took a while—but they did exactly that.

Behind a four-run seventh inning, the Palms pulled away from the Tampa Bay Rays for a 7–4 win Friday afternoon, opening the holiday weekend series with a much-needed jolt and snapping the lingering frustration from the Boston series.

⚾ Trading Early Blows

Both teams came out with some life:

  • Tampa struck first in the opening inning
  • Miami answered right back, with Brett Gardner setting the tone and eventually coming around to score

The Rays added another in the third, and while Miami’s offense showed signs, it wasn’t until the middle innings that things started to turn.

💥 Power Keeps It Close

The Palms leaned on their big bats to stay within striking distance:

  • Edwin Encarnación: 2 hits, 3 RBI, including a triple and his 16th home run
  • Matt Koch: 2 hits, 3 RBI, HR (12th)

A two-run fifth inning tied the game and set the stage for something bigger.

🌊 The Seventh-Inning Surge

Down 4-3 in the seventh, Miami finally broke through.

Facing Chaz Roe, the Palms strung together four runs on four hits, flipping a tight game into a comfortable lead:

  • Timely hitting up and down the lineup
  • Pressure that Tampa couldn’t escape
  • The kind of inning that had been missing all week

“That’s more like it,” Hatteberg said. “We stayed with it and didn’t try to do too much.”

🔒 Bullpen Slams It Shut

Once Miami had the lead, the bullpen made sure it stuck:

  • Cody Allen (W, 4–0): 2 IP, 0 R
  • Chris Martin (Save, 24): Clean 9th

After a rough series against Boston, it was a return to form for the late-inning arms.

⚡ Jaspero Gonzalez Making Noise

Fresh off his return, Jaspero Gonzalez made his presence felt in a big way:

  • 2 hits
  • 3 runs scored
  • Constantly in the middle of the action

👉 The lineup just looks different with him in it

🌴 A Different Look, A Different Feel

Maybe it was the teal.

Maybe it was the opponent.

But for the first time in a few days, the Palms looked like themselves again:

  • Balanced offense
  • Clean bullpen work
  • Energy late

📊 Final

Miami Palms 7, Tampa Bay Rays 4
WP: Cody Allen (4–0)
SV: Chris Martin (24)
LP: Chaz Roe (0–1)

🧭 What It Means

The Palms improve to 44–46, and more importantly:
👉 They’ve got momentum back on their side

With two more games in the holiday weekend set—including a likely City Connect Saturday night—Miami has a chance to turn this into something bigger than just one win.

And if Friday was any indication…

They might just be ready to.


 Miami Palms 7, Tampa Bay Rays 4

 Friday, July 3, 2020

 

 

 Tampa Bay Rays (1-3)                                     Miami Palms (44-46)                                     

 Player          AB R  H BI BB SO  P  A  E LOB   Ave      Player          AB R  H BI BB SO  P  A  E LOB   Ave      

 ------          -- -  - -- -- --  -  -  - ---   ---      ------          -- -  - -- -- --  -  -  - ---   ---      

 Margot cf       5  1  1  0  0  1  7  0  0  0   .267      Gardner cf      5  1  2  0  0  0  5  0  0  0   .310

 Wendle 3b       4  1  2  1  0  0  1  1  0  0   .500      Gonzalez 2b     4  3  2  1  0  0  2  3  0  3   .284

 Meadows lf      3  0  2  0  1  0  2  0  0  0   .313      Grant lf        4  0  0  0  0  2  2  0  0  0   .287

 Choi 1b         4  0  0  0  0  0  7  0  0  1   .000      Encarnacion dh  4  1  2  3  0  0  0  0  0  0   .264

 Renfroe rf      3  0  1  1  1  0  0  0  0  0   .273      Pfaff 1b        4  1  1  0  0  0  8  0  0  1   .400

 Lowe 2b         4  1  2  0  0  0  1  0  0  4   .267      Koch 3b         4  1  2  3  0  0  0  1  0  0   .268

 Adames ss       4  1  1  2  0  2  1  3  0  1   .250      Holt rf         4  0  2  0  0  1  4  0  0  0   .268

 Lowe dh         3  0  0  0  1  0  0  0  0  0   .143      Munoz ss        3  0  1  0  1  0  2  3  0  0   .280

 Smith c         4  0  0  0  0  0  5  0  0  0   .125      Castillo c      4  0  0  0  0  2  4  0  0  2   .189

 

                 -- -  - -- -- -- -- -- -- ---                            -- -  - -- -- -- -- -- -- ---            

 Totals          34 4  9  4  3  3  24 4  0  6             Totals          36 7  12 7  1  5  27 9  0  6  

 

 

                        1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9      R  H  E

                        -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -      -  -  -

 Tampa Bay Rays         1  0  1  0  0  2  0  0  0      4  9  0  

 Miami Palms            1  0  0  0  2  0  4  0         7  12 0  

 

 

 

 LOB- Tampa Bay Rays 6, Miami Palms 6; 2B- Lowe(1); 3B- Encarnacion(6), Gardner(1);

 HR- Adames(1), Wendle(2), Encarnacion(16), Koch(12); RBI- Renfroe(3), Adames 2(2),

 Wendle(2), Encarnacion 3(58), Koch 3(37), Gonzalez(17); GIDP- Meadows(1), Smith(1);

 RLSP- Lowe 2, Adames, Gonzalez 2, Castillo, Pfaff;  

 

 DP- Miami Palms 2; 

  

 

 

 Tampa Bay Rays            IP   H  R  ER BB SO    ERA

 Quintana                  6.0  8  3  3  1  3    4.50  

 Roe(L 0-1)(BS,1)          1.0  4  4  4  0  1   18.00 

 Alvarado                  1.0  0  0  0  0  1    4.50  

 

 Miami Palms               IP   H  R  ER BB SO    ERA

 Johnston                  6.0  7  4  4  2  3    4.73  

 Allen(W 4-0)              2.0  2  0  0  0  0    4.04  

 Martin(S,24)              1.0  0  0  0  1  0    1.69  

 

 Pitches-strikes- Quintana 87-50, Roe 21-13, Alvarado 9-7, Johnston 73-47, Allen 26-12,

 Martin 10-6; Batters faced- Quintana 27, Roe 7, Alvarado 3, Johnston 27, Allen 7,

 Martin 3; 


  

 

  

 Temp - 93, Sky - Mostly Cloudy, Wind - Light and Variable 

 

Comments

Post a Comment