June 27, 2024 – International League (IL)
St. Paul Saints News Release
DES MOINES, IA – The game had everything. A 20-minute delay in the sixth inning when the lights at Principal Park wouldn’t turn on. The St. Paul Saints committing three errors. An inside-the-park home run, five total errors, the Saints squandering a 5-0 and 9-5 lead, and the game ending on a challenge. When it was all over the Saints saw their nine-game road winning streak snapped in an 11-9 loss to the Iowa Cubs on Thursday night.
The Saints jumped out to a 5-0 lead over the first three innings. Matt Wallner continued his red-hot June getting the Saints on the board in the first. With one out, Brooks Lee singled to left. Wallner then took a curveball and smacked a two-run homer to left, his 19th of the season and a Triple-A best 12th in June, giving the Saints a 2-0 lead.
Another two-run blast doubled the Saints lead in the second. With one out Will Holland extended his hitting streak to a career-high nine games with a double to left. That was followed by a two-run blast to left by Chris Williams, his fourth of the season, giving the Saints a 4-0 lead.
Yunior Severino made it 5-0 with a solo homer to left-center in the third, his 15th of the season. Severino came into Thursday night hitting .469 in June with a .600 on base percentage, both are tops in any month by any Saints player in Triple-A franchise history. His 1.350 OPS is second, only to Alex Kirilloff’s 1.488 in June, 2022.
Sloppy play cost the Saints in the bottom of the fifth giving the I-Cubs three runs. Jack Reinheimer led off with a single to left. With two outs Moises Ballesteros singled off the wall in right. Matt Wallner played it perfectly, but his throw back into the infield skipped by three infielders and went into the Iowa Cubs dugout allowing a run to score and sending Ballesteros to third cutting the Saints lead to 5-1. Alexander Canario then reached on a three base fielding error by Diego Castillo at third which scored Canario making it 5-2. Owen Caissie followed with an RBI double making it 5-3.
That’s when a roughly 20-minute delay occurred because they couldn’t get the lights on at Principal Park. Once they got the lights on, the tide turned in the direction of the I-Cubs.
Disaster struck the Saints in the bottom of the sixth inning. BJ Murray Jr. led off the inning with a solo homer to left, his eighth of the season, cutting the lead to 5-4. With one out Reinheimer hit a ball over the head of the…
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