Cubs 12, Saints 11: Slug Fest Isn’t Enough For a Saints Home-Opener Victory

[Theodore Tollefson]

ST. PAUL – After days of setbacks due to weather, the St. Paul Saints finally had their home opener Thursday afternoon against the Iowa Cubs. Here’s what went down.
 

Image courtesy of Rob Thompson, St. Paul Saints

Bailey Ober made his second start of the Saints' young season to keep his days off between starts normal. Opposing him was Roenis Elias, a seven-year MLB veteran, who had seven relief appearances with the Seattle Mariners in 2022. 

It all came down to which team could have the more patient hitter as both teams’ pitching staffs combined for 16 walks and 25 hits in the game. The Saints had hope for a victory after they mounted a large comeback in the bottom of the eighth that put them up 11-8. All that died after the Cubs came back with four more runs in the top of the ninth, making the game a 12-11 final. 

Ober’s home start did not go as planned
Ober’s first inning of work was shaky. A walk to Christopher Morel that started the game came back to haunt him as he surrendered a two-run homer to Cubs center fielder Nelson Velazquez that put the Cubs up 2-0. Ober escaped the inning on the next batter by striking out former Yankee Mike Tauchman. 

The second inning fared much better for the tall righty as he struck out the side, all-swinging, keeping his team in the lead. Ober’s third inning had a 1-5-4-6 fielders choice that shook things up but otherwise, the inning was smooth. 

The fourth was a struggle for the 6’9 righty. After striking out the lead off-man, Ober walked a batter, gave up a single, got a flyout, and then walked two more hitters tying the game up at 3-3. The last walk marked the end of his afternoon with 6 K’s, 4 BB, 2 H, and 3 ER in 3 ⅔ innings of work. 

Ober’s fastball averaged 93 MPH and after the game he spoke on how he felt about the pitch. 

“It felt really strong and healthy, felt like a ball was coming out of the hand well and same with all my other pitches,” said Ober. 

The tight strike zone by home plate umpire Anthony Perez was a large contributor to Ober’s walk total. The cold weather also made it harder for any pitcher to have the command they hoped for. 

“Obviously, I would like to throw a little bit more strikes, stay in the game a little bit longer. But it's one of those days where you're just not gonna get some of those calls because it's cold out there. The winds blown out. Just gotta put that behind you and try to make pitches work as best you can,” said Ober. 

"He was close but  in baseball close is still a ball," said Saints manager Toby Gardenhire. "He was throwing a lot of good pitches that could have gone either way. It's just one of those one of those things where he was just just missing a little bit. So I think if he keeps going this way, turn it in the right direction, then he'll be fine."

Home runs and a bases-clearing double from Wallner isn’t enough to beat Cubs
The Saints were trailing 2-0 when they first came to bat and they didn’t waste time to get back into the game. 

Edouard Julien lead off the inning with a solo shot to get the first run on the board for the Saints, making it 2-1. Then Kyle Garlick, facing a lefty, followed up with a home run of his own tying the game 2-2. Two batters later, first baseman Tyler White had the final solo home run in the first inning to give the Saints a 3-2 lead. 

After an explosive first inning, the Saints bats had a hard time getting on base until the fifth inning. A lead-off walk by catcher Tony Wolters, followed by Julien reaching base on a single, gave Matt Wallner his first RBI opportunity with men on base for the day. Wallner delivered putting the Saints up 4-3. Julien later scored on a wild pitch to give the Saints the 5-3 lead. 

The Saints had a dismal sixth inning that lost them the lead for the first time since the start of the game. A grand slam by Cubs first baseman Matt Mervis put the score at 7-5. In the next inning, Cubs top outfield prospect Brennan Davis hit a solo shot of his own to make it 8-5. 

When all looked to be lost in the bottom of the eighth, the Saints got hope from an old friend of the Twins, Tyler Duffey.

Duffey walked four hitters and gave up a single to set things up for Wallner. He smacked the ball on a 106.6 MPH exit velo for a bases-clearing double, which gave the Saints back the lead and put the score at 10-8. 

Unfortunately, the hope died once more as Cody Laweryson gave up four runs in his CHS debut in the top of the ninth, making it a 12-11 Cubs win. 

An unusual delay of game 
As the top of the third was set to start, the game entered an unexpected delay as Wallner flagged down the grounds crew to check on the dirt on the right field warning track. The grounds crew came in to pack down fresh dirt which ended up being an 11-minute delay. 

“That part of the field has been in the shade most of the day,” said Gardenhire. “So there’s frost underneath there. At the start of the day it was flat and it was fine. Then as the sun starts to hit it, that frost starts to come up so it created a little bit of mud. We had to go through some of the quick dry stuff and check some of that down there so we didn't have guys slipping.”

Other Notes 
The Saints had a one-of-a-kind double play in the top of the eighth from a diving Elliot Soto at shortstop, who flipped the ball while lying on the ground to Julien to get the out at second, followed by a quick relay to first from Julien. 

"It was tough because the ball actually was in the sun," said Gardenhire. "The sun shines through the concourse there in certain innings. Elliot's lost the ground ball in the sun so to actually get any part of the glove on that at all was pretty impressive. And then he was able to flick the ball towards second base with gloves. Soto can do things like that and it's always impressive."

The paid attendance for the day was 3,023. The Saints play their next game against the Cubs tomorrow night at 6:37 p.m. Louie Varland is set to make his 2023 debut for the Saints on the mound. 
 

View full article

[FlyingFinn]

Rough day for Twins pitchers on the 40 man roster, Ober and Headrick. Some have also mentioned Laweryson as a possible callup and he had a bad day as well. 

On the flip side were the hitters - Julien, Garlick and Wallner all with 2 hits. Our catchers, Wolters and Camargo, combined for 6 walks with Camargo going 1 for 2 on SB's. Is he that fast that he is trying to steal two bases in a game?

[ashbury]

Box score can be found here: https://www.milb.com/gameday/cubs-vs-saints/2023/04/06/722874#game_state=final,lock_state=final,game_tab=box,game=722874

(And in general if fans want to follow a day's minor league game for the Twins affiliates, bookmark this: https://www.milb.com/scores/all/all/twins )

[Major League Ready]

19 minutes ago, FlyingFinn said:

Rough day for Twins pitchers on the 40 man roster, Ober and Headrick. Some have also mentioned Laweryson as a possible callup and he had a bad day as well. 

On the flip side were the hitters - Julien, Garlick and Wallner all with 2 hits. Our catchers, Wolters and Camargo, combined for 6 walks with Camargo going 1 for 2 on SB's. Is he that fast that he is trying to steal two bases in a game?

Fangraphs have his speed as 20 on the 20-80 scale.

[big dog]

Yeah, but it's a SNEAKY fast!

[ashbury]

8 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

Fangraphs have his speed as 20 on the 20-80 scale.

Deceptive speed, as they would say of me in my slo-pitch days - "slower than he looks".

[blindeke]

Sad to see Duffey struggling in Cubs AAA. He was a key guy for us, until he wasn't.

[Dman]

IMO Jullian lost that game for them as he had a Grounder hit right to him and he couldn't even keep it in front of him.  It would have ended the game instead they ended up losing.  No one pitched well in this game but it was cold. Some good at bats by both teams. If this is the way Ober was going to pitch thankfully he didn't make the opening day roster.

[h2oface]

Not a good case for pitching depth help today. My, how far Tyler Duffey has fallen. Wow.

[mikelink45]

If Kepler is down - Wallner should be in MPLS 

[cheeseheadgophfan]

17 hours ago, big dog said:

Yeah, but it's a SNEAKY fast!

The bases are bigger....LOL