Goldeyes slip past Saints

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This article was published 13/08/2017 (2440 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It is true that most sequels don’t live up to the original. But all-stars Kevin McGovern and Mark Hamburger did their best Monday night at Shaw Park to make their latest head-to-head matchup another classic — complete with another incredibly familiar ending for both their teams.

The respective aces of the Winnipeg Goldeyes and St. Paul Saints are arguably the two best pitchers in the American Association.

They faced off last month in Winnipeg in what was a truly memorable game. On that night, the St. Paul hurler looked like he was going to get the better of the duel and hand McGovern a hard-luck defeat — until Winnipeg third baseman Wes Darvill smashed a three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth to give his team a dramatic walk-off victory.

In a case of history essentially repeating itself, Hamburger appeared to be cruising to a much needed win on Monday until the Goldeyes pulled off another incredible game-winning rally. Winnipeg — held to just two harmless singles through the first seven innings and seemingly having no answers for Hamburger on the night — exploded for six runs in the bottom of the eight inning for an improbable 6-3 victory.

“Me and Hamburger, always fun games,” McGovern said in the jubilant clubhouse. “What an amazing win, a comeback win. Our bats came alive. With the playoff race at hand we needed a big win. I can’t say enough about our hitters.”

McGovern and Hamburger began the game with a combined 21-6 record and were at, or near, the top of many of the league’s pitching categories. Add to that the fact the Saints entered the night trailing the Goldeyes by five games in the chase for first place in the North Division and the game had a true playoff feel. With only three weeks left on the schedule, time is running out for the Saints, and Monday was as close to a must win as they come at this stage.

Safe to say this one is going to sting just a bit for the Saints.

“Just a fantastic game. It had really good pace, both pitchers were fantastic. A lot of things are happening for our club right now, but the main thing we have going for us is you see our team is committed to playing until we run out of outs,” Goldeyes manager Rick Forney said.

St. Paul recorded the first hit of the game in the top of the third, a two-out single. Winnipeg didn’t put a dent in Hamburger until Josh Romanski snuck a hit through the infield with one out in the fourth inning.

St. Paul’s Brady Shoemaker began the fifth with a lead-off double just beyond the reach of centre-fielder Reggie Abercrombie. He moved to third on a fly out, then came home to score when Kes Carter dropped a single just over the head of first basemen Shawn Pleffner. The very next batter, JJ Gould, got hold of one McGovern left out over the plate and took him over the left-field wall for a two-run shot.

Hamburger didn’t give up his second hit of the game until Andrew Sohn led off the sixth inning with a single. But the Goldeyes’ dynamic offence, which leads the league in nearly every category including hits and runs, appeared as if they wouldn’t be able to string anything together.

Things changed in the eighth. Darvill, Mason Katz, Jordan Ebert and Sohn opened the inning with consecutive singles, the last two scoring single runs to make it a 3-2 game. David Rohm then tried to bunt over the two runners on first and second to put them in scoring position but popped it up, leading to the first out.

That would spell the end of the night for Hamburger.

Lefty reliever Ken Frosch came on to face Romanski and promptly walked him to load the bases. That brought up all-time league home run and RBI king Abercrombie — who came through in the clutch with a two-run single off St. Paul closer Vinny Nittoli. After an intentional walk to Pleffner to again load the bases, David Bergin crushed another two-run hit to break it open.

“You’re just trying to put the bat on the ball. Fortunately I got the hit and we got the win,” said Abercrombie, who had actually swung and missed badly on the first two pitches he saw from Nittoli. He noted the first three hits of the inning came from the bottom-three hitters in the Goldeyes lineup.

“That tells you right there our team is deep,” Abercrombie said.

McGovern gave up just three runs on five hits while striking out eight batters over eight innings — including the last five he faced. He credited a sneaky change-up for his success.

Victor Capellan came on in the ninth to record the save.

Winnipeg is now 48-32 on the season and six games ahead of St. Paul (42-38). They each have 20 regular-season games remaining, including six against each other. The Goldeyes and Saints play three more in Winnipeg this week, then meet up for a three-game series in Minnesota at the end of the month.

The Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks are five-and-a-half games behind the Goldeyes and will play them eight more times this year — four in North Dakota this week, and four in Winnipeg over the Labour Day long weekend to wrap up the regular season.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca