Lord Shuts Down Sioux City 4-1 (Box Score Attached) - American Association

MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com - ST. PAUL , MN (May 19, 2008) – The St. Paul Saints pitching staff leads the American Association in ERA and they did nothing to hurt that on Monday night as Justin Lord and two relievers silenced the Sioux City Explorers in a 4-1 victory in front of 3,524.

Justin Lord appeared to get stronger as the game moved along and hurled 7.0 solid innings as his fastball reached 90 mph late in the game. His hard slider and good change-up kept the Explorers off balance and he allowed just one run on five hits while walking one and striking out seven while improving to 2-0.

Craig Molldrem and Tony Pierce each pitched a perfect inning of relief striking out two, with Pierce earning his second save of the season.

The Saints jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first courtesy of two Explorers errors. Brian Sprout hit a grounder to short which Sam Walker threw away. Tim Brown followed with an RBI double to center and he came around to score when Marcel Longmire singled to left and left fielder Chad Gabriel overran the ball, which allowed Brown to score.

The Explorers got their lone run in the third when Dustin Jones was hit by a pitch, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Jorge Rodriguez and scored on Nick McCoola’s single to right-center.

As all good teams do, the Saints answered back in the bottom of the inning. With two outs Brown walked. He finished the night 2-3 with a double, RBI and two runs scored. Longmire followed with an RBI double to left and he scored on Colson’s double to right.

Along with Brown, Scooter Jordan, Longmire and Brent Krause each collected two hits.

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