By MATT FULKS, tbonesbaseball.com
SUNDAY: ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Saints put together three three-run innings Sunday afternoon and beat Kansas City, 11-7, in the series finale at Midway Stadium.
Kansas City took a 5-0 lead through the top of the third, but St. Paul got on the board in the bottom of the inning with three runs, sparked by a two-run double from Angelo Songco, against T-Bones starter Rick Zagone.
The T-Bones retook the lead 7-6 in the sixth when former Kansas City pitcher Mikey Mehlich walked three before a two-RBI single by Danny Richar that scored Brian Erie and T.J. Mittelstaedt. That would be Kansas City’s final lead of the game.
The Saints tied the game with a run in the bottom of the sixth against reliever Jared Messer, but then took control with a three-run, four-hit seventh off Pat Doyle (3-4). St. Paul added an insurance run in the eighth, as the Saints scored eight runs in the final four innings.
Mehlich (5-1) and another former T-Bones pitcher, Dan Sattler (12), got the win and save, respectively, for St. Paul.
Coming off an 11-4 win Saturday, Kansas City looked as if it might continue the scoring barrage on Sunday as the T-Bones batted around in the first inning against starter Anthony Claggett, who struggled to find his control. Claggett walked Mittelstaedt and David Espinosa leading off the game, as well as two more in the inning. The T-Bones scored three on an RBI single by Ray Sadler and a two-RBI hit by Vladimir Frias.
Mittelstaedt ended the game with four walks, giving him a league-best 60 on the season. After getting on base twice Friday night, Mittelstaedt reached 10 out of 11 plate appearances in the final two games of this series. Sadler led off the third with a home run, his second in as many games.
The T-Bones (27-29) now get set for three games at Sioux City beginning Monday night. The game can be heard on 1660-AM or online at tbonesbaseball.com.
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SATURDAY: ST. PAUL, Minn. – Things haven’t been falling perfectly for pitcher Andy Noga in 2014. That changed Saturday night as the T-Bones gave Noga his first victory of the season with an 11-4 win over the St. Paul Saints on Saturday at Midway Stadium.
Noga (1-3) has been a hard-luck pitcher for the T-Bones but his offense offered a huge boost from the first batter of the ballgame, when T.J. Mittelstaedt led off the first with a home run, his team-leading eighth of the season, against Saints starter Robert Coe (4-4). Mittelstaedt would go on to lead the T-Bones by reaching base all six times on a four-for-four night with three RBIs and two runs scored.
Not to be outdone, Kansas City added two runs in the second on a two-run home run by Robby Kuzdale, who’s homered in both games of this series. Kuzdale had three of Kansas City’s 14 hits in a game during which every T-Bones batter reached base at least once.
Leading 4-0, the T-Bones, who scored in each of the first five innings, put the game away in the fourth. After Kuzdale led off with a double and Mittelstaedt singled, David Espinosa launched a sacrifice fly to center — the first of two for Espinosa in the game — that scored Kuzdale. Two batters later, Ray Sadler hit a three-run home run that gave Kansas City an 8-0 lead.
Although he had only one 1-2-3 inning, Noga was never in trouble. He scattered five hits and one run, along with six strikeouts and two walks, over 6 innings. It’s his first win since beating El Paso on Aug. 24, 2013, for Sioux City.
