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Saints Open 2019 Season with Record Tying 10 Straight at Home; Host All-Star Game

November 14, 2018 - American Association (AA) - St. Paul Saints News Release

ST. PAUL, MN - After finishing two wins shy of a Championship in 2018 the St. Paul Saints will embark on the 2019 season trying to end a 15-season title drought. They will attempt to do it with a home heavy schedule right out of the gate. For just the second time in franchise history the Saints will begin the season with 10 straight games at home. The Saints welcome in the newest member of the American Association, the Milwaukee Milkmen, for their inaugural game on Thursday, May 16, as the Saints open their fifth season at CHS Field. In addition, the Saints will also host the leagues pre-eminent event, the All-Star Game on Tuesday, July 23.

Season 27 in franchise history will open with a four-game series against the Milkmen from May 16-19. Following an off day on Monday, May 20, the Saints welcome in the Chicago Dogs from May 21-23 before the defending South Division Champion Sioux City Explorers round out the homestand over the weekend from May 24-26. The only other time the franchise opened with 10-straight at home was in 2005 when the Saints went 6-4 on that opening homestand which propelled them to a first half South Division title.

The annual high school roadtrip, as CHS Field plays host to the Minnesota High School Section Tournaments, takes place from May 27-June 5 and will send the Saints to Lincoln (May 27-29), Cleburne (May 31-June 2), and Grand Prairie (June 3-5). The last time the Saints only played nine games on the high school roadtrip was in 2015, when they won the final eight games of that trip to finish 8-1. The Saints set a franchise record for victories with 74 that year.

The Saints have drawn 1,633,432 in their first four seasons at CHS Field and are expected to welcome their 2,000,000th fan to the ballpark in 2019 sometime in mid to late August. Once again, the Saints led the American Association in attendance having drawn more than 400,000 for the fourth consecutive season. They are coming off a year in which they had the second highest total in franchise history, with nearly 409,000.

A rematch of the North Division Championship Series will take place at CHS Field June 21-23 and August 9-11 when the Gary SouthShore RailCats come to town. The Saints defeated the RailCats three-games-to-one and advanced to their ninth Championship Series. The team the Saints played in that Championship Series, the Kansas City T-Bones, will visit CHS Field July 16-18 and July 27-29. The T-Bones defeated the Saints three-games-to-one to claim the title last season.

For the second time in three seasons, and fourth time in franchise history, the Saints will host the All-Star Game with two days' worth of festivities on Monday, July 22 and Tuesday, July 23. The home run derby and other events will take place on Monday, July 22 with the All-Star Game at 7:05 p.m. on July 23. More details about the All-Star Game will follow as they become available.

The Saints have eight homestands with seven of the eight homestands being multi-series.

In all, 23 of the 50 Saints home games will take place Friday-Sunday and 28 of 50 Thursday-Sunday. There are a total of 10 home games in May, 12 in June, 15 in July, plus the All-Star Game, and 13 in August. The Saints will remain with the traditional 7:05 p.m. game time on Monday-Saturday and continue with the 5:05 p.m. Sunday game time. There will be four weekday afternoon games: Wednesday, May 22 at 1:05 p.m., Wednesday, June 12 at 1:05 p.m., Wednesday, July 17 at 1:05 p.m. and Tuesday, August 13 at 1:05 p.m. There are seven Friday night fireworks and three additional Fireworks Super Shows on Memorial Weekend, Sunday, May 26 (5:05 p.m.), the Independence Celebration on Wednesday, July 3 (6:05 p.m.) and Fan Appreciation Night, Friday, August 30 (7:05 p.m.).

The American Association made a few changes for the 2019 season with the addition of a new team and some minor division re-alignment. The league added the Milkmen, who will play in a new ballpark in Franklin, WI, and the Wichita Wingnuts are no longer part of the league. The 12-team league will be comprised as follows: North: Saints, Chicago (IL) Dogs, Fargo-Moorhead (ND) RedHawks, Gary SouthShore (IN) RailCats, Milwaukee (WI) Milkmen, and Winnipeg (MB) Goldeyes. South: Cleburne (TX) Railroaders, Grand Prairie (TX) AirHogs, Kansas City (KS) T-Bones, Lincoln (NE) Saltdogs, Sioux City (IA) Explorers, and Sioux Falls (SD) Canaries.

The league will once again play a 100-game schedule with six teams in the North and six teams in the South Division. The Saints play each team in their division two series at home and two series on the road. In the South, they will play the Railroaders, AirHogs and Explorers one series each at home and on the road. The Saints play the T-Bones two series at home and once on the road, the Saltdogs one series at home and two series on the road while they play the Canaries just one series on the road, but the Canaries will not travel to CHS Field. The top two teams in each division will make the playoffs and face off in a best-of-five Division Series. The winner of each Division series will then face off in a best-of-five Championship Series.

The Saints will play a total of 60 games within their own division (32 home, 28 away), and 40 against the South (18 home, 22 away).

Group and specialty seating tickets will go on sale November 28 while single game tickets will go on sale in March. Season tickets are currently available for CHS Field. For more information contact the Saints ticket office at 651-644-6659 or visit saintsbaseball.com.

The entire 2019 schedule is below:

May August

16-19 vs. Milwaukee 1 @ Milwaukee

20 OFF 2-4 vs. Chicago

21-23 vs. Chicago 5 OFF

24-26 vs. Sioux City 6-8 @ Suoux City

27-29 @ Lincoln 9-11 vs. Gary SouthShore

30 OFF 12-14 vs. Winnipeg

31 @ Cleburne 15-17 @ Lincoln

18-19 @ Winnipeg

June 20 OFF

1-2 @ Cleburne 21-23 @ Gary SouthShore

3-5 @ Texas 24-27 vs. Chicago

6 OFF 28-30 vs. Fargo-Moorhead

7-9 vs. Milwaukee 31 @ Chicago

10 OFF

11-13 vs. Fargo-Moorhead September

14-16 @ Gary SouthShore 1-2 @ Chicago

17-20 @ Sioux Falls

21-23 vs. Gary SouthShore

24-26 vs. Texas

27 OFF

28-30 @ Fargo-Moorhead

July

1-3 vs. Lincoln

4-8 @ Winnipeg

9-11 @ Kansas City

12-14 vs. Winnipeg

15 OFF

16-18 vs. Kansas City

19-21 @ Fargo-Moorhead

22-23 ALL-STAR GAME @ CHS Field

24-26 vs. Cleburne

27-29 vs. Kansas City

30-31 @ Milwaukee

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