ST. PAUL, MN (July 20, 2010) – Perhaps the St. Paul Saints would have rather played the Fort Worth Cats in Texas. Coming off of a six game sweep of two Texas teams the Saints came home and saw that streak come to an end 8-6 on Tuesday afternoon at Midway Stadium in front of 6,702.
The Saints, who never trailed by more than two runs on the roadtrip, fell behind 4-0 in the top of the third. The Cats sent nine men to the plate and Nick McCoola led off with a single. Kennard Bibbs singled McCoola to third and an RBI ground out by Brian Fryer made it 1-0. After Bibbs stole third Cesar Suarez walked and John Allen doubled home Bibbs to make it 2-0. Gerardo Avila was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Kelley Gulledge made it 3-0 with a single. Jeremy Sauceda finished the scoring in the inning with a bases loaded walk.
The Saints made it 4-1 in the bottom of the third when Brandon Carter walked, moved to third on an errant pick off attempt and scored on Ole Sheldon’s single.
The Cats, however, responded with two more in the fourth when McCoola doubled and scored on an infield single by Bibbs and a throwing error by Carter on the play. Two batters later Suarez singled home Bibbs to make it 6-1.
With the score 6-2 in the fifth the Saints got to within two when Sheldon reached second on a throwing error by the third baseman Suarez. Jason Cooper drove him home with a double, his 27th of the season, three shy of the Saints franchise record of 30. Two batters later Brent Krause singled him home to make it 6-4.
With the Saints trailing 8-5 in the ninth they made a little noise, but couldn’t tie the game. With two outs Edgard Clemente, who hit his first homer of the season in the fourth, walked. He scored on Krause’s double to pull the Saints within two. Flint Wipke, however, lined out to left to end the game.
The same two teams meet on Wednesday evening at 7:05 p.m. in game two of the three game series at Midway Stadium. The Saints send RHP Zach Peterson (4-3, 2.54) to the mound against Cats RHP Scott Migl (1-2 ,3.77). We say “thanks” to our purple clad friends to the west and celebrate We are “The Paul.” The game can be seen on the Saints Cable Network (check saintsbaseball.com for the channel in your area) and heard on Relevant Radio 1330.
