Columbus rallies late, snaps St. Paul’s four-game winning streak

Columbus didn’t just beat St. Paul, it flipped the game after five innings of control and then buried the Saints with an eight-run surge that snapped a four-game winning streak in an 8-3 loss at CHS Field.

The Saints looked in command early. Trent Baker gave St. Paul 3.0 sharp innings, allowing one hit and striking out four while facing the minimum, and the Clippers had managed only two hits through five innings. St. Paul used that early edge to build a 3-0 lead on RBI hits from Hendry Mendez, Aaron Sabato and Ryan Kreidler, while Orlando Arcia kept his bat rolling with a second-inning single that extended his hitting streak to 15 games.

Then the game turned in the sixth, and Columbus never gave the lead back. The Clippers scored all eight of their runs between the sixth and eighth innings, beginning the comeback before breaking it open in the seventh on Kahlil Watson’s two-run double. John Brebbia was charged with three runs in 0.2 innings as the Saints’ relief work unraveled, and Columbus added more damage in the eighth on a bases-loaded walk to Kody Huff and Milan Tolentino’s two-run single.

The final line underscored how completely the late innings belonged to Columbus. The Clippers finished with 11 hits to St. Paul’s nine, won in 2:59, and did it in front of 3,521 fans at CHS Field. At the time, Columbus sat at 21-20 and St. Paul at 21-19, a reminder that both clubs were right in the mix even as one quick stretch changed the feel of the series.

That mattered even more because the teams were in the middle of a six-game set, with the May 14 game later postponed by rain and pushed into a doubleheader on May 15. St. Paul had entered the series with momentum, but the loss showed how fragile a lead can be at Triple-A once an opponent starts turning over the lineup and finding traffic on the bases.

It also fit an uneasy pattern between these clubs. In a doubleheader at Huntington Park on April 4, 2025, the Saints were walked off 3-2 after leading 2-0 in the seventh. This one followed a different script, but the ending felt familiar: St. Paul had enough early to win, then Columbus seized the late innings that decided everything.