Mario Sanchez Tosses A Gem, But Saints Lose Finale 2-1 To Bisons

BUFFALO, NY (June 26, 2022) - Mario Sanchez retired the first 13 hitters he faced on Sunday afternoon against the Buffalo Bisons. He faced the minimum through five innings. Despite all that, the St. Paul Saints lost to the Bisons 2-1 on Sunday afternoon at Sahlen Field.

Jake Cave wasted little time in extending his streak of reaching base safely to 41 consecutive games. In the first, he drilled an opposite field home run to left, his seventh of the season, putting the Saints up 1-0.

From there it was the Mario Sanchez story. He struck out the side in the first, got three ground outs in the second, and two ground outs and a flyout in the third.

Sanchez had a rather effortless fourth getting a groundout, strikeout, and fly out. As he started the fifth, he had retired the last 18 batters he faced, which included the final six batters in his last outing, a 4.0 inning relief appearance on June 14. He also hadn’t allowed a hit over his last 23 hitters.

Starting off the fifth, Sanchez retired the first hitter, L.J. Talley on a fly out to center. Stevie Berman, however, would break up the perfect game with a single to left. That didn’t bother Sanchez as Tanner Morris followed with a grounder to first that erased Berman at second. The return throw to Sanchez covering at first was dropped for a potential double play. Sanchez wasn’t deterred as he picked off Morris to end the inning, facing the minimum through five.

In the sixth, however, Sanchez made his lone mistake. Chavez Young led off the inning with a single to left. With one out Logan Warmoth deposited one over the left-center field wall, his fifth of the season, putting the Bisons up 2-1. Sanchez went 6.0 innings allowing two runs on three hits while striking out six. He threw 77 pitches, 59 for strikes. It was just the fourth quality start for the Saints this season, three of them by Sanchez. They are 2-2 in those four games.

The best opportunity the Saints had to score late in the game came in the sixth when they had runners at second and third with one out. Michael Helman lined out to third and Cave got doubled up at third to end the inning.

The Saints have Monday off and return to action on Tuesday at CHS Field against the Omaha Storm Chasers (Kansas City Royals) at 7:07 p.m. Both teams are TBA. The game can be seen on the Saints Broadcast Network, cable access channels in and around the Twin Cities area, and heard on KFAN Plus, 96.7 FM.