Dallas Keuchel looks good in debut, but Saints fall to Mud Hens, 7-3
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The St. Paul Saints got a good look at former Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel on Sunday afternoon, and Keuchel looked pretty good.
Making his 2023 pitching debut, Keuchel tossed for four innings, allowing just one run and four hits while striking out four and leaving the ballgame with a 2-1 lead. Unfortunately for the Saints, their bullpen couldn’t hold it, and the Toledo Mud Hens used a six-run sixth inning to power their way to a 7-3 victory in a rain-shortened affair at Fifth Third Field in Toledo, Ohio.
Elliot Soto and Andrew Stevenson each hit RBI singles — Stevenson’s extended his hitting streak to 13 games — in the second inning that gave the Saints (43-31) an early 2-0 lead. The Mud Hens (33-41) split that in half in the third inning when Keuchel made his lone mistake, giving up a solo homer to Andrew Knapp. Then Keuchel danced around some trouble in the fourth, but kept the Mud Hens off the board and left with the 2-1 advantage.
The St. Paul lead grew to 3-1 after Ashton Goudeau walked Chris Williams and Trevor Larnach to start the sixth inning, and Andrew Bechtold hit a single into center to load the bases before Goudeau walked Anthony Prato, scoring Williams.
But it wouldn’t matter. The first four Mud Hens batters reached against Saints reliever Austin Schulfer in the bottom of the frame. That included an RBI double from Johan Camargo and a two-RBI single from Andre Lipcius that gave Toledo a 4-3 advantage.
That led to a pitching swap, but Cody Laweryson couldn’t slow the Mud Hens, either.
Parker Meadows hit a two-run double off him, and Nick Solak added an RBI single to increase the Toledo advantage to 7-3.
Then came the rain, which called the game after the sixth inning.
The Saints have two off days on Monday and Tuesday before they return to action Wednesday for the first of a six-game series against Gwinnett. First pitch is slated for 1:07 p.m. at CHS Field.
