Saints hit three more homers, Gallagher blanks Indianapolis in 10-1 win

St. Paul turned Indianapolis into a spectator early and never let the visitors back into the game, rolling to a 10-1 win at CHS Field behind three home runs and five shutout innings from Ryan Gallagher. The Saints scored four times in the first inning, then kept adding pressure until Royce Lewis blew the game open with a grand slam in the seventh.

The first-inning surge set the tone immediately. Hendry Mendez and Matt Wallner each drilled two-run homers in the opening frame, a burst that sent Indianapolis into chase mode before the afternoon had really started. Lewis delivered the knockout swing later, sending a grand slam over the fence after David Bañuelos reached on an error and Carson Fulmer loaded the bases. That shot pushed the margin to 8-0 and turned the final innings into a formality.

For Indianapolis, the more important question is what this says about the club right now. The Indians were not just beaten by one hot bat or one lucky inning. They were overwhelmed by a Saints lineup that has made damage look routine, reaching 101 home runs on the season and becoming the first team in baseball to get to 100 in 2026. When an opponent can clear the bases twice before the game settles and then add a grand slam for good measure, it exposes how little room there is for error.

Gallagher made sure the lead held. The 23-year-old left-hander, a sixth-round pick by the Cubs in 2024 out of UC Santa Barbara, did not allow a hit until the fourth inning and finished with five scoreless frames. He gave up two hits, walked four and struck out four, a line that looked even stronger because the Saints had already handed him a huge cushion. Gallagher improved to 3-3 and offered a much cleaner outing than the 5.65 ERA he carried into the start.

Indianapolis did not score until the eighth, when Ronny Simon singled home Termarr Johnson. Simon finished 2-for-4 with his team-leading 18th multi-hit game, but by then St. Paul had already taken the life out of the contest. The Saints added two more insurance runs in the eighth, and the game never came close to tightening.

Lewis’ blast was his ninth career grand slam and his 10th home run of the season, and he did it while starting at second base for just the second time in his Minor League career. Mendez kept his Triple-A on-base streak alive at 23 games, Wallner went 2-for-4 for his fourth straight two-hit game, and the Saints kept showing the same trait that has made them one of the most dangerous offenses in the league: they do not need many pitches, or much time, to bury a game.