Rob Pannier

Maybe it is not high noon. There will not be any “This town isn’t big enough for the both of us” speeches. It’s likely that there will not even be anyone dressed in black. However, the four-game set between the St. Paul Saints and Gary Southshore RailCats this weekend will truly be a showdown that could put one team in a dominant position in the North Division of the American Association, while leaving the other believing that their season may be over.Let’s Set the Stage The St. Paul Saints enter the series at 42-34, two games behind the Gary Southshore RailCats. The RailCats are 43-31 and have two clear advantages: they are in first place and they have two games in hand. Furthermore, a third team, the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks, is 1.5 games out and have a game in hand over the Saints. Gary Southshore leads the season series, 6-3. The Saints began the year by going to Gary and winning two of three but a week later the RailCats came to Minnesota and took two of three. On July 20, St. Paul traveled to Indiana on a hot streak, but the RailCats swept St. Paul. They have been in first ever since. The Matchups No doubt that both teams are seeing this as their last stand. While there will be at least 20 games left in the season for both teams following the series, the ramifications of being swept are clear. In addition, a split opens the door for the RedHawks to jump in front in the division, as next weekend they have four games against the Sioux Falls Canaries, last in the North Division (30-45). Tonight's opener is going to be telling as both teams will throw their aces. The RailCats will start Keaton Steele (4-2, 2.06), who will be opposed by right-hander Eddie Medina (6-4, 2.70). This will be Steele’s first start against the Saints this season, as the righty stepped into the rotation after Gary Southshore ace Daniel Minor signed to play in Mexico. All Steele did was toss 11 2/3 shutout innings in his first two outings, earning honors as the Minor League Sports Report Pitcher of the Week. Medina has faced Gary twice this season, both in the early part of the year. He started the second game of the season, allowing six hits and two earned runs in five innings, earning a no-decision in a game the Saints won 8-3. Six days later, he made his first home start of the season, blanking the RailCats on six hits in seven innings, leading St. Paul to a 5-0 victory. The St. Paul Saints look like they have the advantage in game two of this series when a pair of lefties square off. Gary Southshore will send Jeff McKenzie (4-8, 4.33) to the hill against Chris Nunn (4-2, 3.06). McKenzie has lost two in a row, but he has been the hard luck loser in his last two outings, giving up two runs in each start, but losing 2-1 and 4-3. Nunn has been a stabilizer for the Saints after being signed in early July, winning four of his last five outings. McKenzie has appeared against the Saints twice this season, allowing eight runs in 6 2/3 innings pitched. Game three pits the red-hot Gabe Perez against RHP Trevor Foss. Perez began the season as the Gary closer but, since moving to the rotation, he is 3-1 in eight starts, allowing just one earned run in his last two outings over 13 innings. Foss has pitched much better in his last three outings, winning the last two while allowing seven earned runs in 21 innings. The final game of the series pits LHP Alex Gunn (7-5, 4.43) against Jake Matthys (5-7, 4.71). Both of these starters are slumping lately, meaning Sunday night’s contest has the potential to be a four-plus hour affair. Gunn has allowed double-digit hit totals in each of his last two outings and has allowed 14 runs in his last 21 innings. Matthys’ struggles are even worse, as he has lost four in a row and has yielded 14 runs in his last 10 2/3 innings. Expect a lot of bullpen changes in this contest. Reaping the Benefits The team that is likely smiling most about this weekend’s showdown is the RedHawks. Anything short of a sweep by Gary puts them in a position to leave the weekend no further than one game out of first. A Saints sweep would likely put them in first, as long as they take care of business against the Canaries. Truly, that Saints taking three of four is probably the most they can wish for. If Fargo takes three of four in Sioux Falls, they would be in first, a half game ahead of St. Paul in the standings. Plus, the RailCats would be 1.5 games behind. For the RailCats, this series is a golden opportunity. They have four games remaining against Fargo-Moorhead, two against the Wichita Wingnuts, the team with the third best record in the American Association, and they close the season with three in Kansas City against the T-Bones, the team with the league’s second best record. After this weekend, St. Paul has just two games left against the RedHawks and then will play the bottom three teams in the South Division the rest of the way. This should be an exciting weekend for sure. There may not be tumbleweeds rolling across the field, or the sounds of coyotes howling off in the distance, but this will definitely be a showdown at CHS Field. Look for the Saints to be the ones left standing. Robert Pannier covers the St. Paul Saints and the American Association for the Minor League Sports Report. Click here to view the article

There is no more common strategy in any sport than gaining the home court advantage. Teams battle all season long to get as many home games as they can come playoff time, as they know that there’re are numerous advantages to having more games at home than on the road. It is understandable that a team would want home field advantage. The home crowd. Knowing how the field plays. Sleeping in your own bed. All of those are advantages and, in the most critical games of all, should give a team a decided advantage.The Saints Struggle at Home Since moving into CHS Field, the St. Paul Saints have taken full advantage of their fancy new digs. In 2015, when the club set a franchise record for victories (74), the Saints were 38-12 at home. A season later, they went 34-16, helping them to win the North Division for the second season in a row. Not in 2018, however. The Saints are one-half game out of first place in the North Division, trailing the Gary Southshore RailCats, and are tied for second with the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks. They have been in first or second in the division all season long, but that has not been because of their performance at home. Coming into Wednesday night’s contest against the Wichita Wingnuts, the Saints are 12-14 at home, the eighth best home record in the league. This, despite holding a 33-28 record overall. The Question Without an Answer No one really seems to have an answer for why this is happening. St. Paul Saints Manager George Tsamis called the home struggles “perplexing,” and has openly wondered if some players are more exciting about playing in St. Paul than they are about playing for St. Paul. Some are wondering if this is just an anomaly that has been seen across the American Association this season. Amazingly, there are three teams with higher winning percentages on the road than the best team at home has. Of the seven teams that have a winning record, only three have a better record at home than on the road. The Sioux City Explorers are 27-5 away from home, a truly ridiculous record, but they are just 16-11 at home. The Kansas City T-Bones, the team with the best winning percentage at home are 16-10 (.615) in Kansas City, but 23-11 (.676) on the road. Maybe this is just a season where the road team has found some kind of odd advantage. Two weeks ago, the Explorers came to St. Paul and swept a three-game series from the Saints. A week later, the Saints traveled to Iowa to take on Sioux City and won two out of three. The road team has simply found some kind of inexplicable edge. Time to Make a Change The St. Paul Saints begin a five-game homestand on Wednesday night, when the Wichita Wingnuts come to town for two games. (Wichita is 16-9 on the road this season.) They then have three at home against the Texas AirHogs (5-21 on the road). This begins a run where the Saints have 24 of their remaining 39 games at CHS Field. Going .500 at home the rest of the way is simply not going to do it if this team has postseason aspirations. With the pesky RailCats hanging around and the RedHawks starting to heat up as they have gotten healthy, St. Paul must turn CHS Field back into a house of horrors for opponents. They realistically must win at least 16 of their remaining home games to claim one of the two playoff spots in the North Division. One can only imagine what a commanding lead the Saints would have if they had matched their winning percentage from the first three seasons (.640). That would have made them 17-9, giving them 4.5 game lead in the North. However, one ought not worry about the past. Baseball is a sport where one can not dwell on yesterday’s performance, instead needing to focus on what can be done today. With that in mind, the St. Paul Saints have to figure out a way to turn CHS Field into their own sanctuary of success. Fortunately, each and every night they will have 8,500-plus fans to help them to reach that goal. Robert Pannier covers the St. Paul Saints and all of the American Association for the Minor League Sports Report. Click here to view the article

The St. Paul Saints are off to a fast start in the American Association, leading the North Division for most of the season. There have been several players that have made significant contributions to that early season success, but the Saints found themselves short-handed recently thanks, in large part, to that success.Right-hander Vinny Nittoli and second baseman Josh Allen had been on fire. Nittoli was 3-2 with a 3.21 ERA in this five starts, striking out 38 in 28.0 innings, ranked third in the American Association. Josh Allen had a slow start, going 6-32 through the first ten games of the season, but Manager George Tsamis moved him to the leadoff spot on May 30 and he blossomed. In 14 games, Allen was 25 for 58, scored 10-runs and homered four times. These two had become key ingredients for a team looking to return to the playoffs after a one-year hiatus, but success comes at a price. On June 12, the contract of Nittoli was purchased by Saltillo (Mexican League) and, two days later, the New York Mets purchased the contract of Allen. Great opportunities for the players, but a double whammy for the St. Paul Saints. Adding injury to insult was the loss of catcher Justin O’Conner to a dislocated thumb on June 17. O’Conner was the starting catcher, appearing in 24 of the team’s first 27 games. He was hitting .238 and lead the team with five home runs, but it was his play behind the plate that was earning rave reviews. The Saints catcher had the complete confidence of the staff and was shutting down opposing running games this season. O’Conner had thrown out 33 percent of would-be base stealers but, more importantly, only 12 had even attempted to take an extra base on him. He had a cannon for an arm and could throw with authority from any position. Looking Local for the Answers One of the biggest challenges for an independent team is that there is no farm system where a team can turn to restock their roster. They have to go to the open market and hope that they find a player or group of players who will not only make a contribution, but play comparably to the one who was lost. Every manager has a rolodex of agents, player personnel directors, and teams to contact to see if they can find the right player to fit their need, but the best option may actually be right under his nose. That proved to be the case for St. Paul Saints Manager George Tsamis, who found three gems from local area colleges. Needing a catcher, starting pitcher, and infielder, the Saints Manager decided to take a look at players who were graduating but not ready to hang up their cleats quite yet. The first of these came just before Nittoli was signed away, when Tsamis signed St. Thomas Tommies right-hander Ryan Zimmerman. Zimmerman was coming off an impressive senior season where he was 6-3 in nine starts, with two complete games and a 3.36 ERA. The right-hander led the MIAC in strikeouts and had closed the 2018 season in fine fashion, going the distance against Gustavus Adolphus. Zimmerman made his first start for the Saints on June 2 and pitched well, yielding two runs, one earned, on three hits in five innings of work. He took the loss, but proved he could pitch effectively at the professional level. The right-hander got a bit of a reality check in his last start, giving up six runs in four innings against the Lincoln Saltdogs, but Lincoln has three of the top five home run hitters in the league, so no shame in struggling against an offensive machine. In his three appearances, the former Tommies ace has a 4.61 ERA. The loss of Allen was as big, if not bigger. Not only was he hitting well in the leadoff spot, but he was easily the team’s best defensive player beyond O’Conner. Replacing a defensive whiz who was the catalyst to the offense was a bigger challenge but, so far, Zimmerman’s former teammate, Jake Smith, may have proven to be the answer. Smith was an outfielder with the Tommies, but Tsamis has utilized him at short and he has done the job. Smith has appeared in four games this season, adding a spark to the lineup, hitting .462 with four runs scored and four RBI. The shortstop has three hits in each of his last two starts and has played well at short. While pleased, Tsamis is not surprised by Smith’s performance. “He was an outfielder at St. Thomas, but we knew he could play short and he has been solid there. It’s not easy to move from playing in college to the pros, but he has handled it well and been great.” Needing another catcher, the Saints looked just up the street from St. Thomas, signing Concordia-St. Paul backstop Connor Olson. Olson was a standout at Concordia, appearing in 42 games this season where he hit .268 with 23-RBI. He set the school record for homers in his sophomore season, hitting 15. Olson appeared in one game since the signing, going 1-4. In It for the Long Haul While the three were signed to meet specific needs, the truth is that all three will likely stay with the team. The play of Smith is making him invaluable, and he has great versatility in that he can play several positions, which makes him even more valuable. Zimmerman could remain in the No. 5 spot in the rotation, as long as his performance against Lincoln proves to be more of an aberration. Even Olson is likely to stick, as the Saints Manager is prone to carry three catchers. What Lay Ahead After finishing a three-game set in Lincoln, the St. Paul Saints return home to begin a four-game series against the Winnipeg Goldeyes starting Thursday. Winnipeg is currently in third in the North Division, trailing the Saints by 2.5-games. The Goldeyes have won the last two American Association championships. The Sioux City Explorers come to town on Monday to begin a three-game series. The Explorers have the best record in the American Association, leading the South Division by 4.5-games. Sioux City is second in the league in hitting and third in ERA. Rob Pannier writes about the Saints and the American Association just about every day on MinorLeagueSportsReport.com. The next homestand also includes promotions for National Yoga Day, Winter Canival in June and Toilet Paper Drive. Stop by SaintsBaseball.com for tickets. Click here to view the article