Miracle falter against Blue Jays

By DAVE DEVEREUX
Cape Coral Daily Breeze

After watching his team commit its third error of the game in the seventh inning Monday night, Fort Myers Miracle manager Kevin Boles had seen enough.

The Miracle already trailed the Dunedin Blue Jays 6-0 and now with the bases loaded, Boles paid a visit to the mound where he was joined by the entire Miracle defense.

“I just told them to calm down,” Boles said. “I said ‘Hey, look, relax here and let’s take care of the baseball.’ I thought things got a little bit quick for our guys tonight.”

In a month that has brought out the best in the Miracle (33-25), this one got away.

Backed by a stellar pitching performance from right-hander Robert Ray, Dunedin got home runs from Chris Gutierrez and Jacob Butler in an 8-2 win over the Miracle at Hammond Stadium.

It was the opening game of a pivotal three-game series for the Miracle, who entered just 3 1/2 games back of Dunedin in the Florida State League’s West Division.

The Blue Jays (37-20) stretched their own winning streak to six games and have defeated the Miracle in nine of 13 meetings this season.

“They (Dunedin) have strong pitching, strong hitting and strong defense,” Boles said. “That’s a quality ballclub. We have to play our best baseball to compete with them.”

The Miracle entered Monday’s game full of confidence. They now have won 14 of 20 in August, a stretch that includes a 12-game winning streak.

It’s been a remarkable turnaround for the Miracle, who finished 30-40 in the first-half of the Florida State League season.

“We put ourselves in this position,” Steve Tolleson said. “A couple weeks ago we didn’t have much of a chance. We don’t control our own fate, but we play the teams we need to play.”

The Miracle face the division-leading Blue Jays in the second game of the series Tuesday, and they meet five times over the final two weeks of the season.

If the Miracle are going to make a playoff push, they’ll need to clean up the mess left Monday night.

Miracle starter Jeff Manship (7-4) labored through the first 3 2/3 innings, walking four batters and allowing three runs. Guiterrez launched a solo blast to left field in the fourth to give the Blue Jays a 3-0 lead.

Dunedin’s Jacob Butler added a two-run shot in the fifth and the Blue Jays scored one in the sixth and two more in the seventh.

The Miracle’s last victory over the Blue Jays gave them hope for some late-inning drama. On July 30, the Miracle rallied from a three-run deficit in the bottom of the ninth to win 6-5.

The only suspense this time was whether Ray, the Blue Jays’ starter, would allow a hit. He carried a no-hit bid into the eighth, but Juan Portes broke it up with a triple to the right-field corner.

The Miracle scored one run in the eighth and Erik Lis picked up his league-leading 90th RBI in the ninth, but they were unable to mount a serious charge this time.

“We’ve been playing very good baseball and tonight just wasn’t one of those nights,” Boles said. “We didn’t pitch, we didn’t hit and we didn’t play defense, so what we’re going to do is forget about tonight.”

Boles added that the final 12 games of the season will be a learning experience whether the Miracle make the playoffs or not.

“We were written off about a month ago,” Boles said. “We were left for dead. We told them to keep believing in themselves and to keep working hard.

“This is a playoff-type atmosphere. It’s good for their development.”