Saints Struggles on Road Continue, Fall to Indianapolis 7-1
September 21, 2022 – International League (IL) – St. Paul Saints News Release
INDIANAPOLIS, IN – The St. Paul Saints have been one of the better teams at home this season. The road, however, has been a different story. Their troubles away from CHS Field continued Wednesday afternoon at Victory Field in a 7-1 loss to the Indianapolis Indians. The loss was their seventh straight on the road, second longest in franchise history only behind the nine in a row they had from May 10-20 this season.
The pitching matchup was an exciting one as Jordan Balazovic took the mound for the Saints, he of the 2.14 ERA over his last five starts, against a Top 50 prospect in all of baseball, Quinn Priester, making his first Triple-A start.
The two matched zeroes for the first couple of innings, but in the third things started to go against Balazovic. Jared Oliva led off with a single to right and Ji-Hwan Bae walked. Endy Rodriguez made it 2-0 with a two-run double to right. That was followed by a two-run homer to right-center by Blake Sabol, his fifth of the season, increasing the lead to 4-0. Two batters later, Malcom Nunez hit his first Triple-A homer, a solo shot to left, making it 5-0. Balazovic went 3.0 innings allowing five runs on six hits while walking one and striking out four.
Meanwhile, Priester was dominant. He allowed a one out single to Trevor Larnach in the second but got Ryan Jeffers to ground into an inning ending double play. The only other hit Priester allowed was a one out double to Michael Helman in the third. Priester retired the last eight hitters he faced in going 5.0 shutout innings allowing two hits while walking two and striking out six.
The Indians added to their lead in the sixth. With one out, the Indians loaded the bases on a triple by Carter Bins, an infield single from Oliva, and a walk to Bae. Rodriguez followed with a two-run single making it 7-0 Indians.
Ryan Jeffers got the Saints on the board in the eighth with a solo homer to center, his second on Major League rehab, that made it 7-1.
The Saints finished the game with four hits, the last coming on a leadoff single in the ninth by Chris Williams. John Andreoli had his 20-game streak of reaching base safely come to an end as he went 0-4.
The same two teams meet in game four of a six-game series at Victory Field on Thursday night at 6:07 p.m. (CT). The Saint send RHP Randy Dobnak (1-1, 6.39) to the mound against Indians RHP Jared Eickhoff (6-7, 5.06). The game can be seen on MiLB.TV and heard on KFAN Plus, 96.7 FM.
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