Saints Come Up Short Despite Strong Start from Paredes
The St. Paul Saints couldn’t find the timely hit they needed on Tuesday morning at CHS Field, falling 5-3 to the Omaha Storm Chasers in the opener of their six-game series. Despite another strong outing from right-hander Mike Paredes and several late opportunities to rally, St. Paul left too many runners stranded and dropped their third straight contest in front of an Education Day crowd of 6,591.
Omaha grabbed the early lead before many fans had settled into their seats. After a first-inning walk to John Rave, Brett Squires delivered a two-out triple into right field that plated the game’s first run. That would be the only damage against Paredes, who continued his recent stretch of impressive pitching. The Saints starter worked four innings, allowing just two hits and one run while striking out six. Since a rough Triple-A debut in April, Paredes has steadily become one of the club’s more dependable arms, and Tuesday was another example of his ability to keep the Saints within striking distance.
St. Paul answered in the second inning thanks to Aaron Sabato, who launched a solo homer to left-center to even the score at 1-1. The long ball continued Sabato’s hot streak, as he has become one of the Saints’ most consistent power threats over the past two weeks. An inning later, the Saints appeared ready to break the game open after loading the bases with nobody out. Kaelen Culpepper was hit by a pitch, Gabby Gonzalez singled, and Hendry Mendez drew a walk to set the table. However, Omaha limited the damage to just one run on a double-play ball off the bat of Kyler Fedko, allowing St. Paul to take only a 2-1 advantage.
The game swung again in the sixth when Omaha’s offense came alive against the Saints bullpen. Squires tied the game with a solo homer, his third consecutive game leaving the yard, before Drew Waters followed immediately with another blast to put the Storm Chasers in front 3-2. St. Paul quickly responded in the bottom half. Fedko reached after being hit by a pitch, stole second base, and later scored on a clutch two-out single by Ben Ross to tie the game once more.
The deciding sequence came in the seventh. Gavin Cross opened the inning with a double, swiped third base, and came home on a sacrifice fly from Josh Rojas to restore Omaha’s lead at 4-3. The Storm Chasers added an insurance run in the ninth when Tyler Tolbert doubled home Kevin Newman after a pair of baserunners reached with two outs.
The Saints still threatened in their final at-bat. Tanner Schobel walked and Culpepper was hit by another pitch to bring the tying runs into scoring position. A wild pitch moved both runners up, but Omaha escaped when Mendez grounded out to shortstop to end the afternoon. St. Paul finished just 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position, continuing a frustrating offensive trend over the last several games.