Bats’ Slide Continues With 4-1 Loss To St. Paul

The Louisville Bats suffered a 4-1 loss at the hands of the St. Paul Saints on Wednesday afternoon at CHS Field.

After an empty first frame for Louisville’s offense, Nick Lodolo (L, 0-1) made his second MLB rehab start for the Bats this season, but couldn’t deviate from the team’s issues in the first inning. After giving up a leadoff ground-rule double and a single, St. Paul scored their first run of the game on an RBI ground out from Walker Jenkins.

Juan Brito tabbed the first hit of his Bats career on the first pitch he saw, shooting a single into right field with two outs in the second. However, Saints starter Ryan Gallagher (W, 5-5) otherwise shut down Louisville’s offense, as all three outs were strikeouts.

Lodolo recorded his first strikeout of the game in the bottom of the second, a scoreless inning, paving the way for the Bats to tie the game in the third. P.J. Higgins led off the frame with a double, and Francisco Urbaez smashed a one-out double into the gap to knot the game up.

With runners on the corners, Leo Balcazar looked to have his first RBI as a Bat on a sacrifice fly, but Gabriel Gonzalez cut Urbaez down at home on a throw from right field to keep the game tied. Lodolo returned to the bump with a 1-2-3 inning with a pair of strikeouts, keeping the score at 1-1.

As the Bats struggled to threaten St. Paul at the plate, Lodolo returned with another strikeout in a scoreless fourth. However, the Saints put some pressure on the lefty, gathering a walk and a hit with one out in the bottom of the fifth. Kaelan Culpepper put the home team back ahead on the second pitch of the at-bat, lining a two-RBI double to give St. Paul a 3-1 lead.

Lodolo was pulled after the Culpepper base hit for Zach Maxwell, who got two outs to end the inning. Lodolo finished his start through 4.1 innings, giving up three runs on five hits and two walks with four strikeouts.

Maxwell appeared back on the bump for the bottom of the sixth, and gave up a walk with one out. A Cody Morissette liner to right field looked to get stuck under the outfield wall, but Austin Hendrick continued to gather the ball and throw to the infield, eliminating the chance for play to stop. That gave Kala’i Rosario time to score from first, and furthered St. Paul’s lead to 4-1.

After the double play that cut down Urbaez at home in the third, the Bats were retired in nine straight batters before Michael Toglia gathered a leadoff double in the seventh. His hit extends his active on-base streak to 24 games, which ties Edwin Arroyo for the longest by a Bat this season. Toglia’s hit would go unanswered by the next three batters.

Anthony Misiewicz tossed a clean bottom of the seventh, granting him his 27th scoreless outing of the season. Dominic Pitelli gathered a double with an out in the top of the eighth, but was picked off not long after. Urbaez grounded out and ended the inning, continuing frustrations for the Bats' offense.

Connor Phillips posted a scoreless bottom frame, bringing up the Bats’ last chance at the plate. An automatic strikeout retired Arroyo to lead off the inning, and despite a Toglia walk, the Bats came up empty at the plate.

Urbaez was credited with the lone RBI on the day as the Bats struck out 13 times at the plate. The loss now puts Louisville at eight games under .500, the most amount of games at that mark for them this season.

The Bats (50-58, 11-24) play the third game of the series against the St. Paul Saints (63-46, 21-14) Thursday night, with first pitch from CHS Field set for 8:07 p.m. Nick Curran will be on the call for Sports Talk 790AM.