Top of Order Does Damage, Sanchez Deals, Saints Win Second Straight 8-1

ST. PAUL, MN (May 26, 2022) - What a luxury it must be for St. Paul Saints manager Toby Gardenhire to write Royce Lewis, Alex Kirilloff, and Spencer Steer into the top of his lineup. The current top prospect, a former number one prospect, and a top-15 prospect on the rise in the Minnesota Twins organization. The three came through on Thursday night going 7-13 with two home runs and six RBI as the Saints topped the Indianapolis Indians 8-1 at CHS Field in front of 6,284. The Saints have now won back-to-back games for the first time since May 4-5 at home against Iowa.

The offense got off to a slow start as Indians starter Osvaldo Bido retired the first nine men he faced. Trailing 1-0 going into the fourth, the Saints got the offense rolling in the fourth as the top three took over. Royce Lewis led off the fourth with an infield single to third. Alex Kirilloff blasted a two-run homer to right, his second of the season, putting the Saints up 2-1.

In the fifth, Derek Fisher led off with a walk. He moved to second on a wild pitch and advanced to third on a groundout. With two outs, the top of the order did the damage again. Lewis singled home Fisher, increasing the Saints lead to 3-1. Lewis went 2-5 with an RBI, and two runs scored and is 6-13 over his last three games. Lewis stole second and scored on Kirilloff’s single to right-center giving the Saints a 4-1 lead. Spencer Steer then crushed his first Triple-A home run, a two-run shot to left-center, making it 6-1 Saints. Steer went 2-4 with a double, home run, two RBI, and a run scored.

The Saints tacked on single runs in the sixth and seventh. Jermaine Palacios led off the sixth with a double, advanced to third on a groundout, and scored on a José Godoy groundout increasing the lead to 7-1.

Kirilloff finished off an impressive night at the plate with a leadoff double in the seventh. He finished the night 3-4, a triple shy of the cycle, with three RBI, and three runs scored. With one out, Mark Contreras singled up the middle to score Kirilloff making it 8-1.

Starter Mario Sanchez became just the second Saints pitcher to work 6.0 innings as he allowed just one run on four hits while striking out five. It was just the Saints second quality start of the season and their first victory.

The same two teams meet in game five of the seven-game series on Friday night at 7:07 p.m. at CHS Field. The Saints send RHP Dereck Rodríguez (2-0, 1.74) to the mound against Indians RHP Cody Bolton (1-1, 3.33). The game can be seen on FOX9+ and MiLB.TV and heard on KFAN Plus, 96.7 FM.