Saints slug season-high six homers, top Cubs 9-5 in power show

St. Paul did not just outslug Iowa on Tuesday morning, it kept answering every swing the Cubs landed and turned a power duel into a 9-5 win at CHS Field. The Saints launched a season-high six home runs in front of 4,342 fans, and the difference was not only raw force. It was the way St. Paul kept landing the next punch when Iowa tried to drag the game back into range.

Kaelen Culpepper set the tone immediately, leading off the bottom of the first with a solo homer, his fourth of the season and his second leadoff shot this year. The inning kept rolling from there. Walker Jenkins doubled, Gabby Gonzalez singled him home, and Ryan Kreidler and Kyler Fedko helped build a 5-0 cushion before Fedko unloaded a three-run homer to make it 5-0. Gonzalez added another blast in the second, pushing the lead to 6-0 and forcing Iowa to chase almost from the start.

The Cubs, who came in near the top of the International League in homers, answered exactly the way a power team should. Brett Bateman opened the third with a solo shot, and James Triantos followed with a two-run homer that cut the margin to 6-3 and changed the feel of the game. For a stretch, it looked like the kind of matinee that can flip fast when both lineups are built to leave the yard.

Culpepper ended that thought in the fourth. He launched his second homer of the day, a solo shot that made it 7-3 and finished a 3-for-5 game with two homers, two RBI and two runs scored. Emmanuel Rodriguez then delivered the loudest swing of the afternoon, crushing a ball 118.3 mph over the right-field wall. Minor League Baseball said the drive was the hardest home run in baseball at that point and the second-hardest-hit ball in the majors or minors this season, trailing only Oneil Cruz’s 119.0 mph double for Pittsburgh against Washington on April 16.

That is what made this more than a one-off slugfest. St. Paul’s offense did not just hit homers; it managed the chaos better than Iowa did. Rodriguez, identified by MiLB as the Twins’ No. 4 prospect, and Culpepper, the Twins’ No. 2 prospect, headlined the barrage, but Fedko’s three RBI and the early work from Jenkins, Gonzalez and Kreidler gave the Saints enough runway to absorb Iowa’s comeback push.

The result also fit the shape of this series. Iowa had beaten St. Paul 20-6 earlier in the month at Principal Park, blasting a franchise-record eight home runs in that game. This one swung the other way, and the Saints improved to 12-15 while the Cubs fell to 13-14.