Walkers news: June 15 -- Twin Cities 8, St. Louis 4
Record: 40-29, 1st, 3 GA Cedar Rapids and Louisville
Tied 4-4, Jim Peebles hit a grand slam in the seventh inning off St. Louis relief pitcher Nick Ruffalo to help lift Twin Cities to an 8-4 come-from-behind win at Target Field.
At one point down 4-0, the Snow Cats had tied the game in the bottom of the sixth inning on a two-out solo homer from Aaron Watson off River Walkers starting pitcher Shane Drogo.
Still on the mound to begin the seventh, Drogo gave up a lead-off single to Twin Cities' Kurt Baty.
That spelled the end of Drogo's outing.
Scott Rissler took over and struck out Jeff Waddell and got Jonathan Knapp to fly out.
Baty had stolen second while Knapp was at the plate.
Shane King was given an intentional walk.
Mike Sartain then drew a conventional walk from Rissler, loading the bases.
This brought Ruffalo into the game.
His 2-2 pitch was pulverized by Peebles landing 426 feet over the left-center field wall as the Cats took the lead for the first time in the game.
The Walkers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first.
Bob Saavedra led off the game with a homer off Twin Cities starting pitcher Garrett Karp.
Jose Segura added a two-run homer later in the inning.
The Walkers lead reached 4-0 in the top of the second.
Aaron Nixon doubled off Karp with one out and scored on a two-out Saavedra single.
Twin Cities quickly got back into it with three runs off Drogo in the bottom of the second.
Bill Savage drove in two of the runs with a double.
Jeff Friedman drove in the third with a ground out, scoring Karp who had reached on an unsuccessful sacrifice bunt attempt.
Karp lasted just four innings, allowing four runs on seven hits.
After that four relievers combined to shutout St. Louis the rest of the way.
Keith Brennan worked the fifth and got the first out of the sixth.
Alex Gutierrez (1-1) finished the sixth and handled the seventh.
He also earned the win.
Nick Wilson and Jim Messina both pitched an inning to close out the win.
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