Article: St. Paul Saints: A Chip And A Chair

[Ben Szeremeta]

What’s the old poker saying, a chip and a chair? Well, even after losing two of their last three series the Saints are still in the game and have a chance, albeit a very small one. The team now sits six games back of three teams in the wild card race with seven games to play in the 2017 regular season. Let’s look back at how they got there, the playoff picture, and the last home stand of the regular season in St. Paul.Cleburne Railroaders (Aug 18th- 20th)

Kicking off the latest home stand at CHS Field was a three-game series versus the Cleburne Railroaders. While the Saints knocked their league leading 100th team home run of the season during the set with Cleburne, not much else went right for our local nine. The Saints dropped the first two games (6-3, 5-1) before righting the ship in an 8-5 victory in the series finale.

 

This is the third season in a row the Saints have hit 100 home runs, the only three seasons in franchise history the team has eclipsed the century mark for home runs.

 

Wichita Wingnuts (Aug 21st – 24th)

Next up in St. Paul was a four-game visit from the top team in the South, the Wichita Wingnuts. The Saints won the series three games to one, keeping their slim playoff hopes alive.

 

Game one’s 2-1 victory featured a dominant return to CHS Field by Saints pitcher, Dustin Crenshaw. Crenshaw pitched in two games in June for the Saints prior to signing to play in Mexico for the summer. In the 2-1 victory, Crenshaw tossed a complete game, allowing only five hits and one run, while striking out four with no walks.

 

The Saints lost the second game of the series 8-3, but set yet another franchise record for the season. The home team hit three long balls in the game, pushing their season total to 107, breaking the old mark of 106 set last season.

 

Another Mark Hamburger start, another record. Or at least it seems that way this season. In game three’s 3-1 victory, Hamburger dethroned and re-enthroned himself atop the all-time leader board in the American Association for innings pitched in a season. While tossing his seventh complete game of the year, also tying his own league record set last season. Hamburger pushed his innings total to 159.1, eclipsing his old mark of 158.2 set last year.

 

Also of note in the win, Saints first baseman Brady Shoemaker joined an elite group of only two other Saints players in franchise history, hitting his twentieth home run of the season. The feat has been done before only by Kevin Roberson who hit 27 bombs in 2002 and Ole Sheldon who did it twice with 22 in 2010 and 20 in 2012.

 

The Saints won the series finale 5-1, aided by a strong start by Ryan Zimmerman and a 3-4 day at the plate by Mitch Delfino.

 

At Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks (Aug 25th – 27th)

Following the last game at CHS Field, the Saints boarded their bus and took off up Hwy 94 to their next series against the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks.

 

The phrase must win is often over-used in sports today, but not in this case. To keep their playoff dreams alive the Saints entered must win territory as soon as they crossed into North Dakota. Unfortunately, the Redhawks had no plans of slowing down their late season playoff push and helping the Saints stay in the race. They swept the series 3-0, almost closing the Saints chances at the playoffs.

After losing the three games 11-5, 7-6 in eleven innings, and 6-5 also in eleven innings, the Saints were mathematically eliminated from the North Division title race, with the Winnipeg Goldeyes claiming the crown for 2017.

 

Playoff Standings

Wild Card

Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks 52-39

Kansas City T-Bones 52-40, .5 games back

Gary SouthShore RailCats 52-40, .5 games back

St. Paul Saints 47-46, 6 games back

 

Looking Ahead

The Saints return to CHS Field Tuesday, August 29th for their final home stand of the regular season, a three-game matchup versus the first-place Winnipeg Goldeyes. The Saints need a sweep and some help to make a miracle comeback and reach the playoffs, so we need to pack the place. This may be your last chance to take in all the fun and great baseball played in St. Paul for this year. So, let’s all get out to the ballpark one more time to cheer on our hometown team and show them how much we love them!

 

Promotions for the final home stand include Awkward Tuesday (Aug 29th), the 30th anniversary of The Princess Bride (Aug 30th), and Fan Appreciation Night followed by a post-game fireworks super show (Aug 31st).

 

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[Sarah]

If anyone wants to watch an interesting play, it happened in the top of the 4th of the Saints last home game of the season last night. I won't recap the whole thing here, but it led to a benches clearing brawl and I want to ask an umpire the legalities of the whole play. Pleffner (Winnipeg) was at the plate, Romanski was at second and Abercrombie was on first. If you go to the Saints home page and click on video it brings you to the American Association web page where you can view replays from past games. 

[ashbury]

If anyone wants to watch an interesting play, it happened in the top of the 4th of the Saints last home game of the season last night. I won't recap the whole thing here, but it led to a benches clearing brawl and I want to ask an umpire the legalities of the whole play. Pleffner (Winnipeg) was at the plate, Romanski was at second and Abercrombie was on first. If you go to the Saints home page and click on video it brings you to the American Association web page where you can view replays from past games. 

It took me more searching than I anticipated, so to save others the trouble, go to this URL: https://www.americanassociationbaseball.tv/event/1157/st-paul-saints-vs-winnipeg-goldeyes

 

Get to about the 53-minute mark and then watch the routine throw home after a routine base hit.

 

The throw reaches the plate quite high and the catcher is in a vulnerable position trying to reach it. All looks normal, until the very end when the runner coming in to score looks more interested in initiating contact than in hook-sliding into the plate. The ball's high, the runner surely wants to go low, and yet didn't.

 

I don't like that aspect of the play at all. If I'm the ump I find an excuse to eject the runner. (That's probably why the job offers aren't pouring in.)

 

But I guess you're asking why the runner is safe, and like you I need a qualified ump to parse that one. I call the runner out, FWIW. But the ump was looking, looking, looking at something at the very end of the play, so he was watching for something that evidently hadn't occurred yet - the catcher tagged the runner not once but twice and so I don't think it was a matter of dropping the ball or not. Something else was going on there. A tag to the helmet is a legal tag, right? It must be a call on the catcher blocking without the ball, and the ump was simply waiting for the runner to touch the plate; but with interference isn't the base automatically awarded?

 

Next contestant, with your guess?

[Sarah]

I also thought the base runner should have been ejected (it looked pretty blatant to me and he would have been safe if he were to slide) but I wasn't sure if that was just my bias because I'm a Saints fan and their catcher had to be helped off the field after that play, since he was jumping to catch the throw he had no way to brace and protect himself from the collision. I did ask an umpire who mentioned something about voluntary release - I'm not a technical expert either but it may refer to the fact that however long he held the ball when he let it go it wasn't voluntary so that may be why the runner was called safe. Always something new to learn in this game. 

[bizaff]

 

It took me more searching than I anticipated, so to save others the trouble, go to this URL: https://www.americanassociationbaseball.tv/event/1157/st-paul-saints-vs-winnipeg-goldeyes

 

Get to about the 53-minute mark and then watch the routine throw home after a routine base hit.

 

The throw reaches the plate quite high and the catcher is in a vulnerable position trying to reach it. All looks normal, until the very end when the runner coming in to score looks more interested in initiating contact than in hook-sliding into the plate. The ball's high, the runner surely wants to go low, and yet didn't.

 

I don't like that aspect of the play at all. If I'm the ump I find an excuse to eject the runner. (That's probably why the job offers aren't pouring in.)

 

But I guess you're asking why the runner is safe, and like you I need a qualified ump to parse that one. I call the runner out, FWIW. But the ump was looking, looking, looking at something at the very end of the play, so he was watching for something that evidently hadn't occurred yet - the catcher tagged the runner not once but twice and so I don't think it was a matter of dropping the ball or not. Something else was going on there. A tag to the helmet is a legal tag, right? It must be a call on the catcher blocking without the ball, and the ump was simply waiting for the runner to touch the plate; but with interference isn't the base automatically awarded?

 

Next contestant, with your guess?

 

Ugh.  I hate this kind of thing.  This was malicious intent to injure.  I think he should be suspended for at least weeks.  If you can't play nice, you don't get to play.

 

Calling him safe is ridiculous.. I don't think the ump saw he had the ball when he tagged him.. or when he tagged him again.  I'm sure you can find some rule to interpret it either way, but he's out.

 

 

[Otto von Ballpark]

FWIW, the baserunner was eventually suspended by the league for 2 games.

[Sarah]

Thanks spycake - interesting to hear this.