With a 30-34 record, and in last place, the first-season playoffs will be one without the Palm Beach Cardinals.
For this time around.
Facing off against the Brevard County Manatees (boasting one of the league’s worst records at 22-40 entering the game), Palm Beach had one final chance to remain in the playoff hunt. Now, in the High-A advanced league’s, there are two seasons played per year.
On Tuesday night, the Cardinals faced off against the Manatees, with ace Matt Pearce looking to have a bounce back start, after the debacle that dropped him to 6-2 and jumped his ERA to 2.54. While it was a much more successful outing for the young star, he still received his second straight loss, as well as having his ERA rise to the 2.55 mark.
Brevard County scored first in the bottom of the first inning, when Elvis Rubio hit a sacrifice fly that scored Omar Garcia. Garcia had led off the inning with a single.
Pearce and Manatees’ starter Jon Perrin dueled it out over the course of the next three innings, until the Manatees once again scored a run, this time as a result of a solo home run off the bat of shortstop George Iskenderian to suddenly make it 2-0 Manatees.
Perrin continued to pitch lights out, as it wasn’t until the top of the seventh inning that the Palm Beach Cardinals were able to score. Following a walk to Casey Grayson, Mason Katz doubled to score Grayson and give the visiting team some life, cutting their deficit to just 2-1. However, a strikeout by Orlando Olivera ended any momentum contained within the inning, and eventually, they were not able to form up a rally, falling 2-1.
With the win, Brevard County improved to 23-40, though still possessing one of the worst records in the entire league. Palm Beach meanwhile, still has a few games left until the end of the first season of the year, but their playoff hopes for this time around are done.
There’s a lot of talent on this team, however, that can help propel them the next time around.
