Saints Give Up Five In Ninth, Fall To Bulls 8-5

_ST. PAUL, MN _*(July 14, 2023) - *For the first time in their franchise history, the St. Paul Saints took on the Durham Bulls, the defensing Triple-A Champions. The Saints carried a two-run lead into the ninth inning, but the Bulls proved they don’t go down quietly. The Saints allowed five runs in the ninth and lost 8-5 on Friday night at CHS Field in front of 8,643.

With the Saints leading 5-3 going into the ninth, Patrick Murphy retired the first batter he faced, Kameron Misner, on strikes. That’s when things started to unravel. Greg Jones cut the Saints lead to one with a solo homer to left, his sixth of the season, making it 5-4. Three straight singles gave the Bulls the lead as Curtis Mead, who finished the night 5-5, Osleivis Basabe, and Austin Shenton came through with hits, the latter scoring Mead and a bobble in center field by Andrew Stevenson scored Basabe making it 6-5. After a two out walk, Austin Brice took over for Murphy. He gave up a two-run triple to Ruben Cardenas for the final differential of 8-5.

The Bulls grabbed the lead in the second by plating three unearned runs. Tristan Gray led off the inning by reaching on an error from right fielder Matt Wallner who dropped a line drive. With one out, Niko Hulsizer tripled him home giving the Bulls a 1-0 lead. With two outs Jones made it 2-0 with an RBI infield single to short. Jones stole second and scored on a single from Mead increasing the lead to 3-0.

The Saints answered with two of their own in the bottom of the inning. With two outs Jair Camargo singled into left-center. That was followed by a two-run home run from Anthony Prato, his fifth of the season, cutting the deficit to 3-2.

Andrew Stevenson tied the game in the third with a solo homer to left-center, his 10^th of the season.

The Saints grabbed the lead in the fourth when Prato doubled with one out and scored on a two-out single by Stevenson making it 4-3. Prato went 2-4 with a double, home run, two RBI, and two runs scored.

In the seventh the Saints added an insurance run. Back-to-back singles to start the inning by Stevenson and Austin Martin put runners at first and second. Stevenson finished the night 3-5 with a home run, two RBI, and two runs scored. A Wallner ground out moved the runners to second and third. With the infield in, Gilberto Celestino hit a chopper to short, but Gray’s lone play was to first as Stevenson scored giving the Saints a 5-3 lead.

Josh Winder was tremendous out of the bullpen going 2.2 shutout innings allowing two hits while striking out three.

The same two teams meet in game two of a three-game series on Saturday night at 7:07 p.m. at CHS Field. The Saints send RHP Brent Headrick (3-1, 4.05) to the mound while the Bulls are TBA. The game can be seen on the CW Network, the Bally Live app (free), and MiLB.TV (subscription), and heard on KFAN Plus, 96.7 FM.