Saints blank Indianapolis 3-0, stay four games back in first-half race

St. Paul turned a homestand built on offense into a bullpen blueprint, and it paid off in a 3-0 blanking of Indianapolis before 6,550 fans at CHS Field. Five pitchers stitched together the shutout, C.J. Culpepper recorded his first career save, and the Saints finished the series with five wins in six games while staying four games back of the lone first-half playoff spot with 12 games left.

The Saints did not need the long ball this time. Their 17-game home run streak, which had been tied with the Philadelphia Phillies for the longest active mark in baseball this season, ended as the game settled into a cleaner, lower-scoring script. That mattered for a club that had just become the first team in baseball to reach 100 homers four days earlier, because Sunday showed St. Paul can win without playing to its most obvious strength.

John Klein set the tone by fighting through traffic for 2 2/3 innings, then Ty Langenberg took over and delivered 2 1/3 scoreless innings to steady the middle of the game. Marco Raya followed with two strong innings of his own, and Kody Funderburk worked a perfect eighth to hand the ball to Culpepper. Culpepper finished the job with the last outs and a game-ending double play, closing out the Indians and locking in the shutout.

The Saints struck first in the fourth inning on a Tanner Schobel hustle play that turned a wild pitch and an infield single into a run. They added the separation they needed in the fifth, when Aaron Sabato ripped a two-run single to left. That was enough against an Indianapolis lineup that managed six hits but went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position, left seven on base and committed one error.

The result carried a little extra symmetry. It was St. Paul’s first shutout at CHS Field since an 11-0 win over Indianapolis in the first game of last season, and it came in a series that also included the Saints’ 10-1 power display on June 3. A week after five pitchers combined on a shutout in Louisville, St. Paul showed the same thing at home: when the rotation is in flux, the Saints can still control a game by defining roles, limiting damage and letting the bullpen carry the final inning-by-inning push toward the majors.