FSL1 Palm Beach Cardinals

Voit Goes Deep, Cardinals Sweep Manatees

Published on May 23, 2014 under Florida State League (FSL1)
Palm Beach Cardinals News Release


Jupiter, FL - Luke Voit hit his first home run of the year and the Palm Beach Cardinals pitching staff stayed hot to lead the Birds to a 4-2 victory over the Brevard County Manatees on Friday night at Roger Dean Stadium. The Cardinals won all four games in the set to claim their first four-game series sweep this year.

Voit got all of a Tyler Wagner offering in the sixth inning, sending a monster shot over the wall in left-center field. The solo home run was Voit's first since making his Florida State League debut on May 20.

The first baseman is already making his presence felt in Palm Beach, hitting safely in every game since coming up from extend spring at the beginning of the homestand. He has three RBI and five hits in four games, including a walk-off single to lead the Cardinals to victory on Tuesday.

Voit's bomb helped the Cardinals jump out to a 3-0 lead after six innings. Casey Rasmus provided the other run-scoring hits in the fourth and sixth innings. Breyvic Valera and Luke Voit each singled to lead off the fourth before Bruce Caldwell drew a walk to load the bases. Rasmus brought Valera home with a sacrifice fly to deep left field to give the Redbirds the 1-0 lead.

Caldwell earned a two-out walk later in the sixth and raced home when Rasmus followed with an RBI triple to the right field corner, padding the Cardinals lead to 3-0.

Silfredo Garcia was dialed in on the mound for Palm Beach over the first six innings of the game. The right-hander allowed just two hits over the span and had a stretch where he retired 16 of 17 batters (Alfredo Rodriguez reached on an error in the fifth) after giving up a double in the first.

Garcia ran into some trouble in the seventh, surrendering three straight singles to load the bases to start the inning. A passed ball put the Manatees on the board and Garcia's only walk of the game warranted a pitching change by manager Dann Bilardello with nobody out in the frame.

Sam Tuivailala entered the game and got Yadiel Rivera to fly out to center for a sacrifice fly to make it a 3-2 game in favor of the Cardinals. After making the catch in center, Charlie Tilson fired a bullet to third base to catch Nick Delmonico tagging from second. Tuivailala followed the double play with a strikeout to end the threat and the inning.

Both runs were charged to Garcia in the seventh but he had a terrific debut at Roger Dean Stadium nonetheless. Garcia allowed five hits and fanned five on the night to improve to 1-1 with Palm Beach.

Tuivailala pitched a perfect eighth and Chris Thomas tossed a 1-2-3 ninth to earn his first save of the year and preserve the Cardinals sweep.

The Cardinals pitching unit allowed just six runs over 38.0 innings in the four-game series for a 1.42 team ERA. Palm Beach leads the FSL with a 2.32 ERA during the month of May. Lakeland is a distant second with a 2.70 mark this month.

Valera and Voit each finished the evening with two hits, an RBI and one run scored to lead the Birds at the plate. Valera has recorded a multi-hit game in six of his last 10 games and currently ranks third in the league with a .342 batting average.

Wagner (3-3) allowed three runs on seven hits over six innings and took the loss for the 'Tees.

The Cardinals (22-26) will host the St. Lucie Mets for a two-game series starting on Saturday night at 6:35 p.m. before having Memorial Day off. RH Michael Mayers (2-4, 3.66) will start for Palm Beach against RH Gabriel Ynoa (3-2, 4.85) for St. Lucie. The game will be broadcast live on PalmBeachCardinals.com.

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Florida State League Stories from May 23, 2014


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