Chavis and Toglia homer, but Bats fall 4-3 to Saints

The Louisville Bats came one play short of another comeback at Louisville Slugger Field, where Taylor Rashi struck out P.J. Higgins and Will Banfield in the ninth to preserve the St. Paul Saints’ 4-3 win on June 24. After Michael Chavis and Michael Toglia went back-to-back in the seventh to pull Louisville within a run, the Bats put two runners aboard with one out in the final inning before Rashi finished his first save and stopped the rally cold.

Louisville entered the game at 40-35 and 1-1 in the second half, with St. Paul at 43-33 and also 1-1, and the matchup immediately turned into a tight Triple-A game that hinged on one missed opening. The Bats’ offense did all of its damage through the long ball, with Chavis launching his 13th homer of the season and Toglia following with his 19th to make it 3-2. Hectór Rodriguez added a 433-foot solo shot in the eighth, his 18th, but that was the final crack Louisville could make in the Saints’ lead.

The early damage belonged to St. Paul. Aaron Rozek worked 6.0 quality innings, allowed two Louisville runs on four hits and struck out five, and his outing was the third quality start St. Paul had all season, with two of those three coming from Rozek. His fastball averages about 88.0 mph, he was not drafted out of college and he does not appear on any Top 30 prospect lists, but he still earned his second win by forcing Louisville to keep chasing late. St. Paul built its lead in the third on a baserunning and interference sequence involving Kala’i Rosario and Francisco Urbaez, then widened it in the fifth when Gabriel Gonzalez delivered a two-RBI double. The Saints added an insurance run in the eighth after Cody Morissette and Rosario reached and Tanner Schobel singled them home.

Louisville had enough pitching to keep the game alive. Julian Aguiar allowed three runs on three hits in 5.0 innings with six strikeouts, and Hagen Danner struck out the side in the sixth after taking over. The Bats’ four pitchers combined for 15 strikeouts, and the Saints stranded 10 runners, but the margin never disappeared entirely because Louisville could not stack together a clean inning without the home run. Luis Mey also marked his birthday with an inning of relief, giving up one run and striking out three. Louisville will try again Thursday night in the next game of the series.