St. Paul – The St. Paul Saints are coming off a hot week out west in Sin City. They took five of six games against the Las Vegas Aviators, outscoring them 56-30.
A big part of their lineup’s success was first baseman Aaron Sabato. Sabato had inconsistent playing time throughout April, playing in only 16 games. His numbers took a hit, putting up a .229/.296/.458 slash line, 7.4% walk rate, 29.6% strikeout rate, two home runs, and five RBI.
“I think over the first month or so, [had] a little inconsistent at-bats, I was getting beat by some heaters, and it makes it tough when the fastballs getting deep on you,” Sabato said. “It makes it tough to move the ball forward.”
The Saints have multiple position players, Walker Jenkins and Emmanuel Rodriguez, landing on the 7-day IL, creating an opportunity for Sabato to get into the Saints lineup. Sabato put together a three-home run game in his first day in Vegas. Now he’s hitting .333/.405/.848 with a 10.8% walk rate, 27% strikeout rate, five home runs, and 14 RBI, and even swiped a bag over his last eight games.
What’s been the key to Sabato’s turnaround? A lot of hard work in the batting cages to catch up on the heater that had him behind so early in the season.
“Since the beginning of the season, the coaches have been awesome with me about finding something in the cages to supplement some of that not playing time,” he said. “[They] have just been really sticking to the work and challenging myself every day.”
“I think any time anybody is not getting consistent playing time, they’re just trying to find their timing, rhythm at the plate,” Saints manager Brian Dinkelman said of his first baseman. “Last couple of weeks, he’s been getting more playing time and taking advantage of it. Last week was really good for him. He’s hit the ball hard with some no doubt home runs, so it’s good for Aaron.”
Some may attribute the hot streak to hitting in a Pacific Coast League ballpark, where most parks are at significantly higher elevation than those in the International League. But hitting at Las Vegas Ballpark is no easy feat, as the Saints hitters will tell you.
“You’d think that the stadium was a shallow place, but it’s deep,” said Saints outfielder Kyler Fedko. “It’s like 340 down the left field line, it’s 410 at dead center. It was traveling a little bit. There weren’t many cheap home runs. [Sabato] got a hold of all of them.”
Sabato’s first home run in the series traveled 440 feet over the left-center field scoreboard, his second, another 400-plus feet, his third, 386 feet, his fourth, 419 feet, and his fifth, the longest at 444 feet. As Fedko said, no cheap shots for Sabato on any of those swings.
These past eight games could be the start of a much longer hot streak for Sabato. While the Saints had their game against the Columbus Clippers washed out on Thursday night, it’s not looking to stop the white-hot bat he’s swinging at the moment.
But Sabato’s been playing this game long enough that he knows he can’t dwell on the bad slumps or get too high off his recent hot streak. Sabato is just enjoying the ride. He and his Saints teammates are leading all of professional baseball with 70 home runs on the year.
“It’s baseball, it’s a long season, you try not to get caught up in limited sample size of at-bats, and I just trust myself,” he said. “I’ll pick me and my bat any day of the week, just really believe in yourself and really challenging myself in the cages. I just know if I kept putting the work in and kept doing it, I believe in myself a thousand percent.’”
“I’ve been playing with him my whole career, so one of those guys you really root for, so when he goes off like that, it’s just awesome to see,” Fedko said. “Obviously, former first-round guy; he’s talented, you always know he’s got that going in him. I mean, he can do it again tonight, but great to see it happen to him.”
