The St. Paul Saints are entering the meatiest portion of their schedule, and are seeing that the teams fighting for playoff positions are not going to bow to the American Association’s top team. Friday the Joplin Blasters sent Josue Montanez to the hill, and he combined with three relievers on a three-hitter to down the Saints 3-1. It is the club’s third loss in four days.

Through the first four innings of the game Montanez and Saints starter Pedro Hernandez were dominating the contest. Neither starter allowed a run. The Joplin starter allowed a lone double in the fourth inning, and two walks early on. Hernandez was equally as impressive, giving up two singles in the first and one in the third. He got a comebacker that he turned into a double-play to end the first inning.

In the fifth Joplin put together a rally to take the lead. Omar Luna led off the inning with a single, and moved to second on a sacrifice by Jesus Solorzano. Mitch Glasser’s single put runners at the corner, and Oscar Mesa’s single loaded the bases with one out. Maikol Gonzalez followed with a single that scored both Luna and Glasser, and Steven Tinoco’s perfect squeeze brought in Mesa to make it 3-0.

In the top of the sixth the St. Paul Saints looked like they would get those runs right back. With one out Vinny DiFazio walked. He moved to second on an Angelo Songco single, and a walk to Willie Argo loaded the bases with one out. That brought a change from Joplin Blasters manager Carlos Lezcano, who replaced his starter with Carlos Fuentes.

Ryan Lashley attempted to bring a run home with a bunt attempt of his own, but Tinoco made a nice play at first and fired home to cut down DiFazio. Fuentes struck out Joey Paciorek and the Blasters had escaped a bullet.

Fuentes pitched a scoreless seventh as well to keep the score 3-0. Dylan Chavez relieved for Hernandez in the seventh, and he pitched two outstanding innings, allowing no hits or walks, while striking out a batter.

In the eighth the Saints finally got on the board. Victor Capellan relieved and retired Dan Kaczrowski to begin the inning. That brought DiFazio to the plate, who drilled his 15th home run of the season to make it 3-1.

In the ninth the Blasters turned to their ace closer, Winston Abreu. Abreu struck out all three hitters he faced to earn his 15th save of the season. The big right-hander has now pitched 36 innings and struck out 66 batters while allowing just 18 hits. Truly amazing.

Montanez (2-2) earned the victory to move to 2-1 in his six starts. He allowed just 2 hits and 4 walks in 5.1 innings pitched, while striking out 5.

Hernandez (8-3) pitched quite well, but fell due to the low run support. The left-hander pitched 6 innings, allowing 7 hits, a walk, and 3 earned runs. He struck out 3. Songco was 2-4 for the Saints, and DiFazio was 1-3 with the lone RBI.

The loss makes the Saints just one-half game ahead of the Sioux City Explorers for the league’s best record. Joplin remains four behind Wichita with the win, but leapfrogs Kansas City into first for the Wild Card spot.

Boxscore Provided by the American Association

By Robert Pannier