Another attempted ninth-inning rally fell short for the Saints on Friday as St. Paul fell 6-5 to visiting Columbus at CHS Field.
After a successful comeback effort from the home side one night previous, the Saints dug themselves too deep of a hole to climb out of as the Clippers held on to even this week’s series at two games apiece.
St. Paul got off to a ripping start, scoring the first run of the game on a double steal that saw Aaron Sabato take second base while Kalen Culpepper swiped home to put the hosts up 1-0.
Columbus took a 2-1 lead in the third before a Sabato homer in the fourth briefly levelled the count at 2-all. The Clippers regained the advantage in their next at-bat and the score remained 3-2 entering the seventh inning.
Woo-Suk Go emerged from the Saints bullpen to make his first appearance for the team after the Twins sent the reliever across town to accommodate Jack Anderson’s recall to the big-league club.
However, third base umpire Joe McCarthy had other ideas. After inspecting the outside of Go’s glove, McCarthy felt something not to his liking on the inside. After calling his fellow officials over for a group inspection, St. Paul manager Brian Dinkelman came over to defend his new hurler.
After a brief chat between manager and umpires, Go was ejected and his glove was impounded. C.J. Culpepper came on as St. Paul’s pitcher of record in lieu of Go.
Culpepper allowed two runs on three hits over 1 2/3 innings before giving way to Taylor Rashi, who allowed one more run on two hits in four outs of work.
Down 6-2 into the bottom of the ninth, the Saints offense got to work. Cody Morissette led off the frame with a ground-rule double before he came home on Noah Cardenas’ ninth homer of the season.
Following that up, Kyler Fedko singled and Gabriel Gonzalez doubled to put two on with still no one out.
A Kaelen Culpepper groundout proved productive in scoring Fedko from third to draw St. Paul to within a run with Gonzalez still standing in scoring position at second base.
It was not to be, however, as Sabato and Tristan Gray were back-to-back strikeout victims to end the contest in favor of Columbus.
Ryan Gallagher (3-5, 6.82 ERA) took the loss for St. Paul after allowing three runs on five hits with five strikeouts over five innings.
The Saints and Clippers go at it again on Saturday, with game time scheduled for 6:37 p.m.
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