postGame: Saints @ Explorers (Game Three)
The St. Paul Saints (7-0) have defeated the Sioux City Explorers (1-7) by the score of 9 to 3.
…speaking of two teams sprinting as fast as they can in opposite directions, the saints played the explorers tonight…
…i’m running out of good things to say about the saints these days. maybe i’ll go buy a thesaurus so at least i’ll have some fresh adjectives. well, tonight, they showed that they can play with a lead. they held the lead through the middle innings and tacked on runs late. they were helped out by a big 2nd inning 2-out rally, and charlie ruud did what he needed to do to labor through 5 innings in his first start of the year. in that 2nd inning, tim brown, who started for the 2nd consecutive game, walked with 2 outs. christian reyes then singled, and ben thomas drove in brown with a single of his own. julius thames, hitting in the leadoff slot, then reached on an infield single, and so brian sprout came up with the bases loaded and, for the second time this year, he cleared the bases with a 3-run double, giving the saints a 4-1 lead. charlie ruud, who gave up runs in the 1st and 4th, finished his night going 5 strong, giving up only 1 earned run, as the second run was able to score as a result of a passed ball on a strike-out, along with 6 hits and 4 walks, while striking out 1. kyle foster followed, providing another 2 innings of scoreless relief, surrendering only a walk while striking out 2, and with foster exiting, the bullpen had pitched 30.1 innings of 1-run baseball. let me repeat. the bullpen, up to that point, had given up a grand total of ONE earned run in 30.1 innings of baseball. in the words of jim rome, in-credible. in between foster’s 2 innings of work, the bats went back to work and provided some insurance. julius thames led off the 7th with his second hit of the night, as he finished 2-5 with 2 runs scored and a run driven in, and brian sprout bunted thames to second. pichi balet, who was back in the lineup with a “pichi night,” (2-3 with a walk and an rbi… no big deal, although his average did drop) then singled home thames before scooter jordan came in to pinch run for balet, giving the saints a 5-2 lead. the hit parade continued with marcel longmire picking up a single and jason colson singling in jordan. brent krause, who added a great catch to his night, capped the saints rally with an rbi ground-out, giving the saints a 7-2 lead. krause did struggle from the dish yet again, but this 7-0 saints team has just picked him up the entire season, and that is probably the most impressive storyline of the season so far. krause and longmire were a combined 1-9 tonight, but the saints put 9 runs up on the board. jim rome’s back: re-diculous. the saints would tack on two more for good measure in the 8th, with kevin sullivan , who took over for reyes in the bottom of the 6th, walking, ben thomas doubling sullivan to 3rd, thames grounding out to score sullivan and jordan singling in thomas. the saints ‘pen then proved to be mortal. sort of. dustin bolton turned in what would be a good night for any other reliever pitching with a 7-run lead. he pitched 2 innings. he didn’t walk anybody. he only gave up 1 run. too bad for him that the standard has been set by the guys before him — 1 run is 1 more than the norm… in the (paraphrased) words of charlie beattie, time to buy the rest of the bullpen dinner. of course, i kid, bolton pitched great, ruud picked up his second win of the year, and the saints are 7-0. blogging is way more interesting when i have things to complain about…
Tags: Highlights, postGame, Sioux City Explorers
