Darnell cruises as Miracle win 4-1
VIERA – Fort Myers Miracle starter Logan Darnell notched his second win on the road this week with a dominant performance over the Brevard County Manatees Saturday night with a 4-1 victory.
Darnell and reliever Andrew Albers combined on a four-hit victory, facing only 29 batters, just two more than the minimum.
With the win, the Miracle (8-8, 42-44) are guaranteed a split in both their series against the Manatees and on their eight-game road trip across the east coast of Florida. After splitting a four-game series with the Mets, the Miracle are 4-2 on the trip. Brevard County (6-8, 33-51) is 0-6 against the Miracle this season, also taking a sweep at Hammond Stadium in May.
Darnell made only one mistake, giving up a first-inning home run to Hunter Morris, his 14th of the season and second of the series. The left-hander limited the Manatees to two hits the rest of the night in seven innings of work to improve to 6-1 on the season. He lowered his ERA to 2.69, best among Miracle starters.
Trailing 1-0 in the second, Miracle right-fielder Oswaldo Arcia hit a mammoth solo home run against Manatees starter Nick Bucci to tie the game. It is his second of the year in 41 at-bats in the FSL.
The game remained tied 1-1 until the fifth, when the Miracle broke through with two runs on three hits against Bucci. After loading the bases with one out, Aaron Hicks drove in Jhon Goncalves to take the lead, and Arcia followed with a fielder’s choice RBI to put Fort Myers ahead 3-1. Bucci (5-7), who lasted seven innings, took the loss.
The Miracle added their final run of the night off reliever Brad Banks. Danny Rams singled with two outs, and Josmil Pinto clubbed an RBI double to the right-field wall for his second hit of the night.
Albers entered in the bottom of the eighth and gave up a single to Shea Vucinich, but induced consecutive grounders, the latter an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play. Albers sent down Brevard in order in the ninth, striking out a pair. He notched his fourth save of the year.
The Miracle look to win the series against the Manatees at 5:05 p.m. Sunday. Yhr Miracle send right-hander Jhon Garcia to the mound against the manatees’ Hiram Burgos.


