DUNEDIN, Fla. (July 28, 2026) – Bolstered by a group of new position players and the presence of major league rehabber Clay Holmes, the St. Lucie Mets dismantled the Dunedin Blue Jays 14-6 on Tuesday night at TD Ballpark.
The Mets rolled out six new players in the lineup, including four from this year’s draft. Center fielder Aiden Robbins (3rd round – Texas), catcher Ryan Tayman (9th round – Cal Poly), John Smith III (19th round – UCF) and Kooper Schulte (20th round – Iowa) made their pro debuts. DH Yovanny Rodriguez and left fielder Wyatt Vincent made their St. Lucie debuts after being called up from the FCL.
The four drafted players – Robbins, Tayman, Smith III and Schulte – combined to go an incredible 9 for 17 with three home runs, two doubles, seven RBI and seven runs scored.
Holmes (right fibula) moved his MLB rehab from Triple-A Syracuse to the Florida State League due to predicted bad weather in New York. The MLB veteran cruised over 4.0 scoreless innings. Holmes scattered two singles, walked two batters and struck out three while throwing 59 pitches.
Holmes pitched with a big lead for most of his outing due to the hot start by the offense. Tayman hit a two-run homer in the second inning on his first professional swing to put the Mets up 2-0. Tayman went 4 for 5 with the homer, a double, two singles, three runs and two RBI in the game.
Robbins crushed a RBI double off the center field wall in the third inning for his first pro hit to make it 3-0.
In the fourth inning Cole Mathis laced a RBI sac fly and Marco Vargas hit a two-run double off the left field wall against Jays starter Blake Purnell to make it 6-0.
Smith III clobbered two-run homer off Purnell in the fifth inning for his first pro hit. That made it 8-0 Mets. Smith III homered again in the ninth to cap his impressive debut. He went 2 for 5 with two homers and three RBI.
Austin Warren (right forearm strain) pitched a scoreless fifth inning with a strikeout and a double play ball in his first MLB rehab game. He was credited with the win.
The Blue Jays scored four runs in the sixth inning against Tyler McLoughlin but Ernesto Mercedes put out the fire with back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning. Mercedes then pitched a 1-2-3 seventh with two strikeouts.
Elian Peña smashed a two-run homer in the eighth inning and Robbins hit a RBI single to stretch the Mets lead to 11-4.
The Mets scored three more runs in the ninth on the solo homer by Smith III, a bases loaded walk drawn by Julio Zayas and a RBI single by Vargas.
Vargas went 3 for 5 with three RBI.
Schulte was 1 for 3 with a single, walk, hit-by-pitch and two runs scored in his pro debut.
Rodriguez was 1 for 4 with a single, walk and two runs in his St. Lucie debut.
Vincent was 1 for 4 with a double, walk and run in his team debut.
The Mets (12-18, 45-51) and Blue Jays (44-51, 14-16) play the second game of their series at TD Ballpark on Wednesday. First pitch is 6:30 p.m.