Gordon And Rooker Go Deep As Saints Hang On For 4-3 Victory

ST. PAUL, MN (May 14, 2021) - The long ball is proving to be the St. Paul Saints best friend. They hit two more on Friday night, and now have 14 on the season with 50% of their runs coming by way of the home run, at CHS Field to account for all their runs. Andrew Albers had his finest performance of the season and Danny Coulombe locked down just his second save in the last seven seasons as the Saints held on for a 4-3 victory over the Iowa Cubs in front of 3,566 at CHS Field.

Albers was strong despite giving up two runs in the first two innings. With two outs in the first, Rafael Ortega singled and PJ Higgins tripled him home making it 1-0 I-Cubs.

In the second, Albers gave up a leadoff homer to Tyler Gushue, his first of the season, putting the I-Cubs up 2-0.

The Saints did damage against Kohl Stewart. The former first round pick of the Minnesota Twins retired the first eight men he faced and didn’t allow a run through the first four. In the fifth, however, Damek Tomshca led off with a walk and Keon Broxton followed with a single. With one out, Nick Gordon decimated a ball over the right field wall, a three-run shot and his first of the season, giving the Saints a 3-2 lead. Two batters later, Rooker came calling with a solo blast to left, his third of the season to make it 4-2.

In the sixth, two of the first three reached on singles against Albers, but he finished his night off by striking out Patrick Wisdom and Andrew Romine to end the inning. Albers went 6.0 innings allowing two runs on seven hits while walking one and striking out five.

Robinson Leyer, who walked four in 0.1 of an inning in his last outing, struck out the side in the seventh. In the eighth, he hit Higgins with one out before retiring Cameron Maybin on a foul out. Leyer’s night was done and Ian Hamilton came on in relief. He walked three straight hitters to force in a run and cut the Saints lead to one. Coulombe finished off the inning by getting Sergio Alcantara to line out to left.

The Saints, who didn’t have a save during their first nine games, got one from Coulombe who gave up a leadoff single to Trayce Thompson in the ninth. He advanced to second on a passed ball. A fly out to shallow right by Abiatall Avelino forced Thompson to stay at second. Rafael Ortega’s groundout to second moved Thompson to third. Coulombe got Higgins to fly out to right to end the game.

The same two teams meet in the fifth game of the six-game series on Saturday night at 7:05 p.m. The Saints send LHP Charlie Barnes (1-0, 5.40) to the mound and the I-Cubs are TBA. The game can be seen on the Saints Broadcast Network, cable access channels in and around the Twins Cities, and heard on KFAN Plus, 96.7 FM.