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IL St. Paul Saints

Louuuuu, Varland Hurls 7.1 Shutout Innings as Saints Blank Bats 5-0

August 12, 2023 - International League (IL)
St. Paul Saints News Release


ST. PAUL, MN - Royce Lewis homered in his third Major League rehab game of the week. Brooks Lee hit his first Triple-A home run. Both, however, were upstaged by Louie Varland. The St. Paul native gave family, friends, and the 8,328 in attendance something to scream about as he tossed 7.1 shutout innings in a 5-0 St. Paul Saints victory over the Louisville Bats on Friday night at CHS Field. The win improves the Saints to 22-15 in the second half and a franchise record 19-games over .500 on the season, 65-46.

Varland started the game by walking Alejo Lopez on four pitches. He put it on cruise control after that. With one out, he picked Lopez off and then struck out Matt Reynolds to end the inning. Lewis got the Saints off on the right foot with a solo homer to left in the first inning, his sixth with the Saints, making it 1-0. With two outs Trevor Larnach walked and took third on a single down the right field line by Gilberto Celestino. Jair Camargo then dropped a two-run double down the right field line giving the Saints a 3-0 lead.

Varland gave up one out singles in both the second and third, but retired the next two hitters in each inning.

The Saints bashed a couple of solo homers in the third adding to their lead. Lee hit his first Triple-A home run, a 445-foot blast to right, making it 4-0. With two outs, Jair Camargo hit a 108.8 mph frozen rope over the left field wall, his 18th of the season, putting the Saints up 5-0. Camargo finished the night 2-4 with a double, home run, three RBI, and a run scored.

Varland retired 10 in a row from the one-out single in the third until a two-out single by Major League rehabber Curt Casali in the sixth. A fielder's choice off the bat of Reynolds ended the inning.

After retiring the side in the seventh, Varland came out for the eighth. He fanned Jose Barrero to start the inning and that ended his night. Varland went 7.1 shutout innings allowing three hits while walking one and striking out six. He threw 84 pitches, 56 for strikes. The 7.1 innings were the third most innings in franchise history behind Mario Sanchez' 7.2 on June 2, 2022 at Iowa and the 8.0 innings by Andrew Albers on August 15, 2021 at Indianapolis. Jovani Moran took over and walked the first batter he faced, but got a double play ground out to end the inning.

Moran finished off the shutout in the ninth. After a leadoff single by Lopez followed by a walk to Chuckie Robinson, Moran got a fielder's choice groundout and back-to-back strikeouts to end the game.

The Saints allowed just two base runners to reach as far as second. It was the second shutout for the Saints this season, the first since April 18 vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

The same two teams meet in game five of a six-game series on Saturday night at CHS Field at 7:07 p.m. The Saints send RHP Patrick Murphy (5-2, 4.53) and the Bats send RHP Lyon Richardson (0-0, 0.00) to the mound. The game can be seen on the CW Network, the Bally Live app (free), and MiLB.TV (subscription), and heard on KFAN Plus, 96.7 FM.

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