Threshers Fall to Blue Jays 4-2 in Makeup Game as Lasaracina Homers Twice

Threshers bring the hits, Dunedin brings the hammer

The Clearwater Threshers won the hit count in Dunedin. Unfortunately, that particular trophy does not exist.

In a makeup game from July 19, Clearwater jumped ahead early, watched the lead disappear almost immediately and fell 4-2 to the Dunedin Blue Jays. The Threshers finished with 6 hits to Dunedin’s 5. The Blue Jays simply chose the more efficient delivery method: over the fence.

Giaconino Lasaracina homered twice, Raimundo De Los Santos added a two-run shot, and Clearwater’s promising start became a long evening of trying to get back into a game it had briefly controlled.

Whether you were watching in Clearwater, talking baseball in St Pete or making the case for the Threshers from Dunedin or the beaches, the postgame argument was pretty short. Singles are useful. Home runs tend to end the discussion.

A lead with no time to get comfortable

Clearwater did its scoring in the top of the 2nd, and there was nothing wrong with how it got there.

Jonathan Hogart crossed the plate on Matt Quintanar’s force out to put the Threshers ahead 1-0. Cade Climie followed with a line-drive single to right, bringing Quintanar home and making it 2-0. Productive contact, runs on the board, a little breathing room. A perfectly respectable opening statement.

Dunedin’s response was considerably louder.

In the bottom of the inning, Lasaracina drove a solo homer to left-center to cut Clearwater’s lead to 2-1. De Los Santos then sent a two-run homer to right, scoring Dean West and putting the Blue Jays ahead 3-2.

That is a rough way to treat a freshly built lead. Clearwater had barely set it on the counter before Dunedin knocked it onto the floor.

The important part was not some mysterious shift in baseball energy. It was the scoreboard: the Threshers scored 2, the Blue Jays answered with 3, and Clearwater never scored again.

Lasaracina supplies the separation

Lasaracina returned to the same general neighborhood in the bottom of the 4th, sending another solo home run to left-center. Dunedin led 4-2, which held up as the final.

A two-run deficit is not a locked door. Clearwater just could not find the handle.

Neither club scored after the 4th, leaving the Threshers with plenty of reason to replay the earlier damage. Angel Liranzo allowed 4 earned runs in 3.1 innings and struck out 3. Those strikeouts were useful; the runs were decisive.

Lasaracina finished 2-for-2 with 2 RBIs and 2 home runs. No need to dress that up with a speech about wanting it more. He got pitches he could punish and supplied the swings that mattered.

Climie went 1-for-3 with an RBI for Clearwater, providing a useful contribution during the Threshers’ only scoring inning. But useful and sufficient were different things in this one.

Save the hit-count argument for the tailgate

For the Pinellas crowd talking it over at the tailgate or watching with friends around the county, this was a familiar baseball irritation: enough contact to stay interested, not enough scoring to leave happy.

Clearwater’s early execution deserved better than becoming a footnote. But Dunedin turned its biggest swings into every run it needed, and the Threshers had no scoring answer after the 2nd. That is the game, without the motivational poster attached.

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