The St. Paul Saints had to feel pretty good about their chances of sweeping the Chicago Dogs on Saturday, as they sent ace Eddie Medina to the hill, who had the third best ERA in the American Association heading into the contest. However, two home runs by Kenny Wilson and three total by Chicago led to Medina’s worst outing of the season as the Dogs would prevail 12-4. Rich Mascheri earned the victory to remain undefeated.

St. Paul would get off to a great start in the top of the first. Max Murphy doubled into left field to begin the game and scored when Brady Shoemaker launched his 14th homer of the season two batters later.

The Chicago Dogs were undeterred by trailing early. In the bottom half of the inning, Edwin Arroyo walked with one down and scored when Rubi Silva followed with his fourth homer of the year to tie the game at two.

In the bottom of the second, Chicago would take the lead. Stephen Perez doubled to lead off the inning and moved to third on a ground out, but it looked like Medina would get out of the frame when he struck out Michael Falsetti. That brought Kenny Wilson to the plate, who drilled his fourth homer of the year to put the Dogs on top by two.

Saints would get one of those runs back in the top the third. Kyle Barrett singled with one down, extending his hitting streak to 21 games. Barrett moved to second on a wild pitch and advanced to third on fly out. He scored on a passed ball to cut the deficit to one.

In the fourth, the Chicago Dogs would take a commanding lead. Falsetti walked to start the inning and Wilson followed with a single. Both runners moved up on a wild pitch, and Falsetti came home on an Arroyo ground out. Silva followed with a ground ball to first but an error allowed him to reach and for Wilson to score. Trey Vavra followed by drawing a walk and, two batters later, Joe Benson doubled scoring both Silva and Vavra to extend the lead to 8-3.

In the sixth, St. Paul would pull within four. With two down, Justin O’Connor launched his 15th home run of the season, but the Saints would get no closer.

Chicago added three more runs in the bottom of the seventh. It began when Benson reached on an error and moved to second when Matt Dean was hit by pitch. A wild pitch would bring home Benson just before Wilson hit his second home run of the game, a two run blast that gave Chicago their biggest lead of the night, 11-4.

The Dogs would add one more insurance run in the eighth. Benson doubled with one out and scored on a base hit by Perez. That gave the final score of 12-4.

Rich Mascheri (4-0) earned the victory going 5.2 innings. He allowed 6-hits, 3-walks, and 3-earned runs, striking out 5. Kenny Wilson led the offense, going 3-5 with 3-runs and 4-RBI. Joe Benson was 3-5 with 2-runs and 2-RBI. Dante Bichette, Jr. also extended his hitting streak to 24, longest in the American Association this season.

The St. Paul Saints are off on Sunday, beginning a two series in Winnipeg starting Monday night. Jake Matthys (8-7, 4.38) will get the start for St. Paul. First pitch is scheduled for 7:00.

Boxscore

By Robert Pannier