Wins are hard to come by in professional baseball, which makes the feat St. Paul Saints manager George Tsamis accomplished on Tuesday night that much more special. With the Saints 6-5 win over the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks, the longtime skipper now has 1,000 career wins as a manager.
The RedHawks got the scoring started in the top of the first inning when Brennan Metzger led off with a double to left field. Maikol Gonzalez followed with a bunt single that was misplayed by Saints first baseman Noah Perio Jr., which allowed Metzger to score and give the Redhawks a 1-0 lead before the Saints even had a chance to bat.
Once the Saints came to the plate, they made the most of it, or at least Josh Allen did. He led off the bottom of the inning with a home run to right field to tie the game. The Saints went down in order after that.
Fargo tacked on two more runs in the top of the second inning when Tommy Mendonca led off with a walk. He scored when Metzger hit another double, this one to center field. Metzger then scored on a single from Gonzalez to put the RedHawks up 3-1.
The Saints were able to get one of the runs back in the bottom of the inning when Jayce Boyd drew a one-out walk. He was on third with the bases loaded when Allen picked up what had to be the most painful RBI of his career, as he drove in Boyd on a hit-by-pitch. After having his back examined by Tsamis and trainer Jason Ellenbecker, he remained in the game. Max Murphy flew out to center field to end the inning.
After neither team was able to score in the third, the RedHawks added a run in the fourth inning when Yhoxian Medina led off the inning by drawing a walk. He ended up scoring on Metzger’s third double of the night. Metzger advanced to third on an error and later scored on a Gonzalez sacrifice fly to move it to a 5-2 lead.
The Saints got one run in the fifth inning. Dante Bichette Jr. hit an infield single, driving in Murphy from third. The inning came to an abrupt end when Boyd grounded into a double play.
St. Paul got to within one run in the seventh when Allen hit his second solo home run of the game to lead off the inning, but the RedHawks were able to escape the inning without any further damage.
The Saints harnessed the power of the rally squirrel in the bottom of the eighth inning, using two doubles and a single to take a 6-5 lead over the RedHawks.
The inning started when Bichette doubled to right field. Boyd followed with a double of his own to right field but Bichette was only able to advance to third base. He did end up scoring when Justin O’Conner hit a sacrifice fly to right field to tie the game. JJ Gould put the Saints ahead with a single to center field that scored Boyd. The inning ended with a pair of strikeouts.
The Saints brought in former big leaguer Tom Wilhelmsen for the ninth inning He gave up a leadoff single to Keury De La Cruz but catcher Justin O’Conner was able to pick him off first base. After the pickoff, it was easy sailing as Wilhelmsen finished the game and gave Tsamis his 1,000th career win.
The Saints will look to win the series on Wednesday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 pm.
Notes
- Metzger had a fantastic night for the RedHawks, going 4-for-5 with three doubles and three runs scored. The lone at-bat he didn’t get a hit, he reached safely on an error by the shortstop.
- Kes Carter had a tough night for St. Paul, going 0-for-3 with three strikeouts and a walk. Allen, on the other hand, can be credited with singlehandedly keeping the Saints in the game with his two home runs.
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