[rink23]

Record: 3-3, 3rd/(Tied/w. Louisville and Des Moines), 1 GB Springfield
St. Louis scored three runs in the top of the first inning off Springfield starter Marcos Zaragoza and never trailed in posting a 6-2 win at Oracle Park (2020).
Despite losing the series opener 19-2, the River Walkers won the next two to capture the series.
Three consecutive one-out hits sparked St. Louis first-inning outburst -- Mark Herman doubled and Manuel Coke and Nick Shaw followed with singles -- off Zaragoza.
Herman scored on Shaw's single.
Jim Moorman plated the other two with a two-out double.
The Railers tallied twice in the bottom of the first off Walkers starting pitcher Ming Xiang.
But that would be the last of their scoring
Xiang (2-0) would secure his second win in as many starts by going 5.1 innings, and allowing the two runs on five hits. He struck out five and walked four.
Jesse Gathier got Xiang out of a sixth inning jam by getting Alex Otero to ground into a double play with runners on first and second.
Greg Sones got the first out of the seventh, but got himself into trouble wit a pair of walks.
Bobby Westerman worked out of that seventh inning situation and got the first out of the eighth.
Keith Kirby handled the rest of the eighth.
Closer Craig Fritzler worked the ninth without allowing a run in a non-save situation.
After going up 3-0 early, St. Louis added single runs in the fourth, eighth and ninth.
In the fourth, Jackson Miller tripled with two outs off Zaragoza and scored on an Abdul-Nasser bim Amr single.
Herman hit his first home run of the season to lead off the eighth off Jon Santiago.
In the ninth, bin Amr doubled with one out off Bobby Mitchell and scored on a pinch-hit single by Ryan Wibbenmeyer.