The Kansas City T-Bones defeated the St. Paul Saints 10-2 on Thursday night thanks to an offensive outburst that Saints fans have become used to seeing from the home team.
Kansas City strikes early and often
Neither team recorded a hit until the bottom of the second when St Paul got a hit. The T-Bones got their first hit in the top of the third, then proceeded to go to work against starting pitcher Jeff Shields.
Vladamir Frias led off the inning by reaching on an error by the shortstop Mike Gilmartin. He proceeded to steal second and third before scoring on an error by catcher Tony Caldwell that allowed Anthony Gallas to advance to third base.
Kansas City got five more runs in the fifth inning when Christain Torres started the inning with a hit by pitch. Sergio Leon then hit a sacrifice bunt to move Torres to second base, which was followed by a walk to Brett Wiley.
That setup Frias, who reached base on another error by the shortstop which allowed Torres to score and advanced Wiley to third base. Jake Blackwood then stepped up and flew out to center field, moving the runners up a base and moving the lead up to 4-0. Tyler Massey followed with a two-run home run to right field, which was followed by a fly out by Brandon Tierney to end the inning, but the damage had been done.
(Stevie Larson/VAVEL USA)
The T-Bones added another in the sixth on a one-out home run by Gallas. That was the end of the night for Shields, who left the game in favor of relief pitcher Cody Knaus. Knaus was able to get out of the inning without allowing any more runs, although he did give up a double to Massey.
St. Paul finally gets a run
In the bottom of the inning, the Saints finally got on the board as Angelo Songco hit a one-out double to right center field. Nate Hanson followed with an RBI single to make it a 7-1 game. After Tony Thomas singled, and the T-Bones made a pitching change, Tony Caldwell stepped up and hit a double to right field scoring Hanson and giving the Saints the final run that they would get on the night.
Gallas led off the seventh inning for the T-Bones and hit a home run to left field to give back one of the runs the Saints had scored. The T-Bones added two more in the ninth when Frias homered to left field. A few batters later, Gallas doubled, and later scored when Massey doubled to center field
The Saints were unable to get any offense going in their final at-bat, and the T-Bones walked away with their fourth victory of the young season.
Quick Hits
- The Saints and T-Bones will play again on Friday night at 7:05 p.m. The Saints will send John Straka to the mound while Kansas City will send Jeremy Strawn to the mound.
- Tony Caldwell has adjusted to the starting catcher position nicely, as he is batting .379 on the season, which is right around where last year’s catcher Vinny Difazio was.
- The loss was just the second of the season for St Paul, as they swept the Gary Southshore Railcats to open the season before taking two of three from the Sioux Falls Canaries.