Bats’ Losing Streak Continues With 4-1 Defeat To St. Paul

The Louisville Bats’ woes continue as they lost to the St. Paul Saints 4-1 at CHS Field on Friday night. The Bats were held hitless by the Saints until the seventh inning, recording only three hits before the final out.

Jared Lyons took the bump for the Bats as they looked to snap a three-game skid, and tossed a scoreless first inning for a step in the right direction. After giving up a hit in the first frame, he held the Saints hitless through innings two and three.

Louisville had similar issues, not putting a runner on until the fourth inning with a walk to Edwin Arroyo. Arroyo swiftly stole second base with one out in the frame, but nothing came from it.

With the game still deadlocked, Lyons gave up a leadoff walk to the Saints in the bottom of the fourth. St. Paul’s franchise leader in extra-base hits, Aaron Sabato, capitalized on the base runner, smashing a two-run home run to put the home team ahead 2-0 before Lyons escaped the inning.

The no-hit bid for St. Paul continued into the fifth, as the Bats were retired in order for the fourth time. Lyons tossed another clean inning in the bottom half, gathering his fourth strikeout in the process.

The Bats continued a rough outing at the plate with St. Paul gathering another clean inning in the sixth. Kendry Rojas gathered five strikeouts through the first three innings, while Saints reliever Ricky Castro gave up the walk to Arroyo, but otherwise kept it clear in three innings with two strikeouts.

Lyons placed a runner on with a walk to start the bottom of the sixth, and similar to the fourth, gave up another two-run homer to Matt Wallner to make it 4-0. Lyons escaped the inning once again and was later relieved, finishing his line with four runs on three hits and four walks and four strikeouts through six innings.

Arroyo broke the hitless bid to lead off the seventh, lining a single into right field. Michael Toglia followed by reaching in his 26th straight game with a single of his own, and a ground ball double play by Will Benson brought the first run home for the Bats.

Sam Benschoter recorded two consecutive outs to escape a pair of runners on base to end the seventh. Will Banfield collected a hit with two outs in the top of the eighth, but his hit went unanswered.

A double play by the Bats ended the bottom of the eighth, but the offense went without a last gasp, bringing Louisville’s losing streak to four games.

Arroyo, Toglia, and Banfield recorded the only three hits of the night for the Bats, while Benson was credited with scoring the lone run. Louisville has now lost its last eight meetings with St. Paul, and officially dropped their fourth series in a row.

The Bats (50-60, 11-26) play the fifth game of the series against the St. Paul Saints (65-46, 23-14) Saturday night, with first pitch from CHS Field set for 7:37 p.m. ET. Nick Curran will be on the call for Sports Talk 790AM.