The Bats' offense was unable to put much together in the 8-1 loss to the Saints on Thursday night at Louisville Slugger Field.
Brandon Leibrandt didn’t get off to a hot start in the first inning. He walked the first batter of the game before giving up a 406-foot two-run homer to Royce Lewis, which gave St. Paul an early 2-0 lead. He’s now tied for second in both the Major and Minor Leagues with six homers allowed in the first inning of games this season.
Hector Rodriguez hit a one-out triple in the bottom of the first but was tagged out attempting to score on a Noelvi Marte ground out during the next at-bat.
The Saints’ offense continued firing freely in the second. Leibrandt allowed back-to-back leadoff singles and walked Ben Ross to load the bases for Noah Cardenas. The Saints catcher launched a grand slam, a 394-foot homer, which gave St. Paul a 6-0 lead.
Kaelen Culpepper subsequently singled and was thrown out attempting to steal second base by catcher Dayne Lenonard. Lewis then doubled, which ended Leibrandt’s evening. Jose Franco entered in relief and recorded the final two outs of the inning.
Leibrandt allowed six runs on seven hits and walked two over 1.1 innings of work, his shortest outing since August 25, 2024.
Franco walked the leadoff batter in the third, who later came around to score on an Edwin Arroyo throwing error, which boosted the Saints' lead to 7-0. In the top of the fourth, Franco allowed two hits and hit a batter, which loaded the bases with one out for Kyler Fedko. Fedko hit a sacrifice fly to left fielder Austin Hendrick, which scored the lead runner and boosted the Saints' lead to 8-0.
The Bats' offense remained cold the entire evening. The fifth inning was the first time Louisville had more than one runner on at a time, but failed to score.
Franco and Anthony Misiewicz combined to pitch a scoreless fifth and sixth inning, before giving way to Kyle Nicolas. Nicolas allowed just one hit and struck out three over two scoreless innings of work.
Connor Phillips walked the first two batters he faced in his Bats season debut, but induced a double-play and a pop-out to complete a scoreless ninth inning.
With one out in the ninth inning, Austin Hendrick hit a no-doubt homer to right field, which closed the deficit to 8-1. Hendrick’s second Triple-A homer of the season was hit 412 feet. Leonard and Arroyo singled in the ninth to put runners on the corners with two outs, but Rodriguez struck out to end the game.
Hendrick posted Louisville’s lone two-hit performance with a 2-for-4 evening. Misiewicz's scoreless showing improved his consecutive scoreless appearances to eight.
The Bats will take on the Saints again on Friday at 7:15 p.m. Chase Petty (2-4, 6.32) will get the ball for the Bats, and he’ll oppose southpaw Aaron Rozek (0-0, 1.84). Nick Curran and Jim Kelch will be on the call on Talk Radio 1080.