The St. Lucie Mets opened the second half of the season with a 3-2 extra-inning win over the Palm Beach Cardinals on Friday night at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium.
St. Lucie scored the deciding run in the top of the 10th before Miguel Mejias retired the Cardinals in order to close it out, giving the Mets a 1-0 lead in the three-game series.
Palm Beach struck first on a Sebastian Dos Santos solo home run in the bottom of the first. The early deficit was a tall order for St. Lucie, which came in 16-34 on the season when allowing the first run.
Randy Guzman answered in a hurry in his first game back from the injured list, where he had been since June 9. In his first at-bat, Guzman launched a 108 mph solo homer 374 feet to left to tie it at 1-1 in the second. It was his 10th home run of the season.
Palm Beach edged back ahead in the bottom of the second on a fielder's choice, but St. Lucie answered again when Elian Pena hit his fourth home run of the year to level the score at 2-2.
From there it became a pitchers' duel. Mets starter Joel Lara allowed two runs on four hits over 4 2/3 innings, walking three and striking out five. Zack Mack followed with 1 1/3 scoreless innings and two strikeouts, and Elwis Mijares handled the next three innings, allowing just two hits with no walks and three strikeouts. Mijares earned the win to improve to 4-4.
With the score still tied in the 10th, the Mets started the inning with automatic runner AJ Salgado at second. Branny De Oleo moved him to third with a sacrifice bunt, and Chase Meggers brought him home on a sacrifice fly for a 3-2 lead.
Mejias took the bottom of the 10th and delivered a perfect frame, striking out two before getting Matthew Miura to pop out to end it, earning his second save of the season.
The Mets improved to 7-13 in the second half and 40-46 overall. Palm Beach fell to 12-9 in the second half and 45-42 overall. St. Lucie can lock up the series Saturday night, with first pitch set for 6:30 p.m. at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium.