T-Bones Series Recap

Another series down for our boys in Dodger Blue and Red. The St. Paul Saints took on the Kansas City T-Bones in a 4 game series at CHS Field in St. Paul. This is the second home series for the Saints in 2016 and the last before the long 14 game road trip.

The series opened up on Thursday night with Jeff Shields starting for St. Paul and Johnny Shuttlesworth for the T-Bones. Shields would take the Saints through 6 1/3 innings allowing just 2 Earned Runs but the Saints were down 7-0 going into the bottom of the 6th. In the 6th St. Paul would bring in there only runs of the game with Nate Hanson knocking in Angelo Songco and Tony Caldwell driving in Hanson. The Saints would fall by a final score of 10-2 in game one of the series. A crowd of 7,157 watched Shuttlesworth take the win and Shields (1-1) the loss.

Friday night was a whole different story for both clubs, KC would have Jeremy Strawn pitch while John Straka took the Hill for St. Paul. Straka would see his way through 6 full innings giving up all 5 Kansas City runs. The Saints offense would see Tony Thomas blast a 2 run shot in the 2nd making it 2-1, the 4th would see Thomas drive in Angelo Songco and on the next at bat Gilmartin drove in Thomas to make it 4-1 St. Paul. The Saints would make the lead even bigger in the 6th with Songco driving in Harris, Thomas bringing Almadova in and a single by Tanner Vavra to score Nate Hanson to make it 7-1. The crowd which was the first non sellout in CHS Field history of 6,252 saw John Straka (2-0) take the win Strawn with the loss and Ryan Rodebaugh get his 3rd Save of the year.

The series would be tied at 2 coming into Saturday night with Cody Scarpetta getting the nod for St. Paul and Jordan Cooper on the hill for the T-Bones. After an uneventful first 3 innings KC would strike first in the 4th inning making it 1-0. St. Paul struck back with 2 in the 5th and the clubs would continue to trade blows like heavyweight boxers until the night inning. The T-Bones would rally from behind with St. Paul up 4-2.Anthony Gallas would score Wiley and Frias on an error to tie it up at 4 all. But Tyler Massey put the nail in the coffin with a 2 run shot to make it 6-4 KC. Reliever Aaron Baker took the win and Ryan Rodebaugh the loss and his first blown save in front of a crowd of 7,220.

St. Paul would look to split the series with Kansas City coming into One Last Purple Game on Sunday evening. The players would take the field from Red Corvettes wearing purple Prince inspired jerseys. Veteran Pitcher Mark Hamburger took the mound for the boys in Purple while Casey Barnes started for the Steaks. Willie Argo would homer in the 2nd to make it 1-0 STP, there wouldn't be a run score in this pitchers duel until the 6th inning when Nate Hanson drove in Aaron Gretz to make it 2-0. Barnes took the game 6 and 1/3 innings allowing 2 runs while his replacement Evan DeLuca would allow 2 runs in the 7th inning as he went 1 2/3 innings. Those runs would be off a 2 run Nate Hanson long ball to make it 4-0 Saints. The most impressive part of the night went to Mark Hamburger who pitched a complete game allowing just 1 run, on 6 hits with 6 K's and no walks and the crowd which made a new franchise record with 10,443 fans showing up. Hamburger would stay perfect with yet another win and Barnes took the loss.

With a series split against Kansas City the Saints lead the North Division with a record of 8-3 and are 1.5 games over 2nd place Winnipeg. But St. Paul is about to get road worthy as after the largest crowd in franchise history they'll play the longest road trip in club history at 14 Games. The series starts at Joe Becker Stadium in Joplin, MO against the Blasters from May 30th-June 2nd, it continues in Laredo June 3rd-5th, moved to Amarillo against the Texas AirHogs from June 6th-8th and finishes at The Birdcage in Sioux Falls June 9th-12th. The Saints will be back at home from June 13th-15th against the Sioux City Explorers. You can catch all the road games here on "Club 1220" KLBB and some game will also air on americanassociationbaseball.tv. Just remember until next time Fun Is Good and GO SAINTS!