St. Paul – David Festa knew he’d have a longer leash on his pitch count and innings limit this Opening Day compared to a year ago. So he did his best to be the most efficient he could for his first start of the season as the Saints hosted Opening Day Friday night.
“I don’t know what my first-pitch strike was or some of the early stuff we tracked,” said Festa postgame, “but I thought we did a really good job of attacking the zone early, getting first-pitch outs, which was something I needed to improve on.”
Festa had a lot of help from his offense to get the Saints' first win of the season as they beat the Pittsburgh Pirates Triple-A affiliate from Indianapolis 11-0. Emmanuel Rodriguez got the Saints on the board in the bottom of the third with an RBI double that put the Saints up 2-0 and went 3-for-4 on the night with two RBI and a walk.
“Emmanuel Rodriguez is an extremely talented player,” said Saints hitting coach Shawn Schlecter. “How he has success is that he’s extremely aggressive in the zone on all pitch types, and that’s what he did today. He got good pitches to hit, took good swings, and the results showed from that.”
While Rodriguez took the spotlight at the plate, all the Saints hitters reached base at least twice. First baseman Mike Ford was the only player without a hit, but he drew two walks.
“I think our guys, top to bottom, were just itching to hit tonight,” said Schlechter. “Opening night, that’s a fun night for our guys. These guys train so hard for their off-seasons and during spring, so when the bullets go flying, they get excited and it was good energy all around.”
The newest player making his Triple-A debut had all eyes on him Friday night. Luke Keaschall debuted with the Saints at DH and was 0-for-2 in his first two at-bats with a strikeout. However, he turned things around in the later innings, collecting a couple of singles and going 2-for-6.
Despite low exit velocities staying below 90 MPH, it didn’t bother Keaschall too much as it had been over six months since he had swung a bat in a minor league game.
“It felt good, I’m just excited to get out there and play again,” said Keaschall. “First ball I hit pretty hard, and it just got right on the ground. Second at-bat, left the zone, wasn’t what I wanted to do, but I found that groove and got after it and tomorrow will be an even better day.”
It was a great start to the season for an inconsistent team in hitting at home last season. It was also a great relief for catcher Jair Camargo, who went 3-for-5 with two doubles and two RBI.
“All the work I tried to put in this spring training, big league camp, it wasn’t the results I wanted to have,” said Camargo. “But thank God for today. It shows off what I can do. Mentally, I was trying to be as calm as possible, and I think that was the biggest thing from tonight.”
Camargo was also complimentary of Festa’s stuff post-game. The 25-year-old right-hander needed only 58 pitches to get through five innings, with 39 landing in the strike zone and accumulating four strikeouts. Festa kept to his primary pitching arsenal with his fastball, slider, and change-up but decided to throw his sinker nearly a dozen times, though Statcast only read it once.
“It was really good. I got some ground balls with it, strikeouts looking to end the third, and the fourth inning was a sinker,” said Festa. “I’m really happy with where it’s at. I have confidence in it, and I think it’s going to be a good pitch for me,”
Camargo was complimentary of his starter after the game. His game mentality, focusing on being calm, rubbed off on Festa while he was on the mound, and followed through with the relievers as the night went on.
“I think just attacking,” said Camargo. “I think now we know that the weather is a little inconsistent, not as nice as Ft. Myers or Florida. It’s a little tougher to put some swings on some pitches. As a hitter, you think about it, so I was just trying to tell him to attack strike one, then strike two, then mix around with some pitches, and he was doing it,”
“We did a great job not only before the game but in between innings to figure out how to sequence these guys,” added Festa. “What to attack with before the game with some of my strengths and some of the hitters' weaknesses.”
Festa also had help holding onto the win thanks to two scoreless frames from Scott Blewett in the sixth and seventh innings. He did so coming off a couple of bad outings to finish out spring training, where he allowed five hits and two earned runs in 3 ⅔ innings to end camp.
“It felt good just going out and sticking to my plan,” said Blewett. “I filled it up and let the rest do itself, trying to build off of what I was working on last year. In spring training, I was working on some things mechanically, and it started to click, and I was just happy with how much I was in the zone tonight.”
“Having Festa, Fundy, Bischoff, and Blew all throwing zeroes, that’s the best thing I can help take care of,” added Camargo. “I’m happy for that, I’m happy for a great opening night, so we just keep going.”
Despite thunder and lightning showing up around CHS Field at the top of the seventh inning, the Saints played through and played all nine innings of their opening game and provided fans with the blowout 11-0 victory. They’ll send Andrew Morris to the mound Saturday in Game 2 of their three-game series against Indianapolis.
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