Tarpons Bomb Dunedin Blue Jays 14-7: Sixth Inning Pulls the Plug

Blue Jays bring bats to a fireworks fight

Seven runs ought to buy you a decent Friday night. For the Dunedin Blue Jays, they barely covered admission to the argument.

The Tampa Tarpons hammered Dunedin 14-7 at TD Ballpark, piling up 17 hits and four home runs. This wasn’t a loss you could pin on a bad bounce or one pitch that wandered into the wrong neighborhood. Tampa kept hitting, and Dunedin never found the off switch.

For Pinellas fans watching in St. Pete, Clearwater or out on the beaches, this was the kind of score that makes you check whether you’ve accidentally opened a football update. For the Dunedin crowd, it was considerably less funny up close.

The Blue Jays had offense. What they didn’t have was enough pitching to make that offense matter.

The sixth shuts the door

Tampa got moving in the second inning. Diego Castellanos opened the scoring with a solo homer, and Dax Kilby followed with a two-run triple for a 3-0 lead.

Dunedin answered when Giaconino Lasaracina doubled home Juan Sanchez. Tyce Armstrong added another run for Tampa in the third, and the Blue Jays eventually trimmed the deficit to 4-2.

That was still a ballgame. Not comfortable, not pretty, but something you could discuss optimistically without your tailgate companions asking you to hand over the keys.

Then came the sixth.

The Tarpons scored six runs, with Anthony Potestio and Luis Puello each delivering a two-run homer. Kilby also walked and scored on a Bear Harrison single. By the time the inning ended, Tampa led 10-2, and the conversation had shifted from how Dunedin might win to how much longer this could hurt.

Tampa added four more runs in the eighth. Dunedin scored three in the ninth, but those were repairs after the roof had already landed in the yard.

Puello owns the evening

There’s no hometown discount on player-of-the-night honors. Luis Puello earned this one outright.

He went 4-for-5 with two runs scored, five RBI and two home runs, his 12th and 13th of the season. Dunedin had enough trouble with the rest of Tampa’s lineup. Puello made the assignment unreasonable.

Jake Cook supplied a bright spot for the Blue Jays, going 2-for-5 with two runs and a homer. That deserves its mention without pretending it changed the temperature of the night.

Starter Deiker Pineda finished with 2.2 innings pitched, four hits allowed, four earned runs and one strikeout. The trouble started early, and the six-run sixth ensured it didn’t stay there.

Leave the excuses in the parking lot

Whether your baseball night starts with a tailgate in Dunedin or watching with friends elsewhere in Pinellas, the verdict travels: 11 hits and seven runs should give your club a chance. Allowing 14 runs takes that chance and punts it toward the causeway.

No need to turn one ugly result into a grand prophecy. The early deficit was manageable. The sixth wasn’t. That’s the story, minus the decorative excuses.

Review the damage in the full game log, check the team schedule, or follow more Dunedin Blue Jays coverage.

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