A night after watching the Sioux City Explorers battle from three down to defeat the St. Paul Saints 7-5, the Saints would stake Mark Hamburger to a 9-2 lead before winning 10-5. The red-hot Anthony Gallas extended his hitting streak to six games with his third home run of the season and Maxx Garrett remained on fire since rejoining the team, homering for the second time in less than a week.

The Explorers jumped on Hamburger in the first, plating two runs. Michael Lang and Jayce Ray began the frame with back-to-back singles and Lang scored on a Nate Samson double into left. A sacrifice fly by John Nogowski brought Ray home and it was 2-0. The sacrifice fly was the first out of the inning and started a run of nine straight batters retired by the Saints starter.

St. Paul responded with two-runs of their own in the bottom of the first. Danny Oh delivered a lead-off single and moved to second on a ground ball. Another ground ball had Oh looking like he would be stranded at second, but Brady Shoemaker and Anthony Gallas walked to load the bases against Kurt Heyer. That brought Tony Thomas to the plate, who singled to left field, scoring both Oh and Shoemaker to tie the score.

In the second, St. Paul took the lead. Maxx Garrett started the inning with a double, but was replaced on the base paths when he was caught at third on an attempted sacrifice attempt by Tanner Vavra. With Vavra at first, Oh singled and Breeland Almadova followed with a base hit that scored Vavra to make it 3-2.

In the third, Gallas started the inning by drawing his second walk of the game and he moved to second on a single by Tim Colwell. Vavra’s two-out single scored Gallas and Oh added his third-single in three innings to bring home Colwell.

The St. Paul Saints were rolling and they would add four more runs in the fourth to extend the lead to seven. Shoemaker singled to start the inning and scored when Gallas crushed his third home run over the left-center field wall. Two batters later Colwell reached on an error and scored when Garrett hit his second homer over the left field wall. That made it 9-2.

After giving up the two-runs in the first, Hamburger took control of the game, allowing three-hits over the next five innings. In the top of the seventh his run would come to an end. Tyler Ogle was hit by a pitch and LeVon Washington doubled to put two runners into scoring position with no one out. Brandon Alvarez followed with a single that scored Ogle and a double-play grounder scored Washington.

St. Paul got a run right back. Almadova singled to get the inning started and he scored on an error by Washington. That made it 10-4.

Sioux City would add one more run in the eighth. Lang singled and moved to second on a two-out hit by Nogowski. Tony Campana’s base hit brought Lang home to make it 10-5, but the Explorers would get no closer.

Mark Hamburger (4-1) earned the victory. Anthony Gallas was 1-2 with 2-runs and 2-RBI. During his six-game hitting streak, Gallas is 12-21 with three 3-hit games. Maxx Garrett finished 2-5 with a run and 2-RBI. Danny Oh was 3-6 with a run and an RBI. Sioux City was led by Michael Lang, who was 2-4 with 2-runs scored.

The rubber match of this three-game series is a matinee affair. Former Explorers starter Ryan Zimmerman is scheduled to start for St. Paul. First pitch is 1:05.

Boxscore

By Robert Pannier