It had to happen at some point, but the St. Paul Saints' pitching staff finally surrendered a run in the bottom of the eighth inning in their third game.
That’s 25 consecutive innings of scoreless baseball from a pitching staff with some of the highest expectations in Triple-A as they set a new franchise record for the Saints for consecutive scoreless innings thrown to start a season. And it’s all thanks to five of the six young starters on the Saints roster who have expectations for their future with the Minnesota Twins.
“It’s great,” Saints manager Toby Gardenhire said about his pitching staff ahead of the opener last Friday. “The pitching staff kind of goes day-by-day in Triple-A, so you can have the best pitching staff in the International League one day, then the next day you can be pulling guys up from A-ball again. I try not to jump the gun on it too much, but we have a really good group of pitchers, [and] we have some really good pitching coaches. It should be a lot of fun.”
Despite Wednesday night’s game turning into a late-inning 2-0 loss and having two of their first three home games rained out, David Festa, Zebby Matthews, and Andrew Morris made the starts during this scoreless streak. Meanwhile, Travis Adams and Cory Lewis served in long relief roles. Full-time relievers Kyle Bischoff, Scott Blewett, Kody Funderburk, and Anthony Misiewicz also contributed.
“The guys we have in this clubhouse, we’ve been together a while now with Dave, Andrew Morris, Cory, Marco, and all those guys, it’s awesome,” said Matthews, who went on a meteoric rise from High-A to the majors last season. “It’s a fun environment to be around. We’ll definitely compete a little bit when it comes to pitching. We all support each other.”
“I think we each bring out the best in one another, and then to look at the depth we have within the rotation,” said Festa, ahead of the Saints opener last Thursday. “I think it’s just a credit to what the Twins have been able to do with drafting guys. The number of guys we have here now that weren’t super high draft picks, but the Twins have done a great job of finding what we need to work on throughout the years we’ve been with them.”
Festa, Matthews, and Morris threw five scoreless innings in their starts and struck out four batters. Morris allowed the lone walk among them collectively. Adams pitched 2 ⅔ innings after Matthews' Tuesday night, allowed four hits but no walks, and struck out two. Lewis pitched 1 ⅔ innings after Morris, allowing two walks and no hits while striking out four batters.
Saints catcher Patrick Winkel has caught many of his 202 career games behind the plate with Festa, Adams, and Morris on the mound and the other members of this Saints rotation. He’s had the most familiarity with the collective staff because Jair Camargo only began to work with most of them in 2024. Camargo had been ahead of them in his minor-league development, spending all of 2023 in St. Paul. Diego Cartaya only joined the organization in the off-season following a trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“One, you get to see them progressing and get better, but two, you also know them and know what needs to go right for them, and you know how to help guide them if things aren’t going right,” Winkel said, “So it’s huge to have the familiarity of the staff because they can lean on us to help them and the same with them for us.”
If their first outings of 2025 are a sign of consistency, their batterymates are glad they have to provide them with run support and not go up against them.
“Even watching those two guys (Festa and Matthews) in the spring, they looked fantastic,” said Saints utility man Austin Martin. “As well as our bullpen arms, as well as some of the younger prospect arms, those guys are extremely talented. I’d hate to be an opposing team facing this one through five for sure.”
Even with Cartaya being new to the organization, Winkel said he easily fit in with the catching core during spring training. Now, it’s just a matter of setting a routine with game plans for him.
“Diego, he’s a great catcher,” Winkel said. “They do things very professionally with the Dodgers, and I’m sure he is going to take a lot of that over here. He’s going to fit in just fine, and he got to see a lot of these guys in spring training.”
St. Paul’s young pitchers have also received a boost in the clubhouse and during bullpen sessions. This season, the Twins promoted pitching coaches Carlos Hernandez and Jonas Lovin from Double-A Wichita and High-A Cedar Rapids following the departure of former pitching coaches Pete Larson and Dan Urbina.
Hernandez has been with the Twins organization since 2017 and has coached at every level above rookie ball since 2020. He’s worked with all of the Saints' starters at one level of the minors or another. As the lone member of the coaching staff who played in the big leagues, pitching parts of three seasons with the Houston Astros from 2001-04, he has insight that pitchers like Morris, Marco Raya, Adams, and Lewis desire.
“It’s exciting because when I first came to the organization, some of the guys I first coached happened to be here, so to me, it’s a great experience,” said Hernandez. “I did it as a player, and I’m just looking forward to helping them with that experience as a coach.”
Lovin may not have pitched in affiliated ball during his playing career, which ended in college. However, he has the votes of confidence from his staff because he’s worked with them all to develop them into the best pitchers they can be before they make their MLB debuts or return to the majors.
“Jonas is my guy, he’s awesome,” said Matthews. “I’ve worked with him a lot in the minors, so I think everyone’s excited to have him up here. He’s done well in his time with the Twins so far, both he and Carlos Hernandez are awesome and unbelievable at their jobs, so it works out.”
“It’s just really cool, and what makes this job enjoyable is seeing that growth and that progress,” said Lovin. “Whether that’s growing in maturity, whether that’s growing in their execution of the game or their daily routines, whatever it is. But that’s the enjoyable part of it for sure.”
Raya will be the last of this young core to make his first appearance of the 2025 season, starting for the Saints on Thursday night in Columbus. He may not have the hefty expectations of continuing a consecutive scoreless innings streak to start the season. However, many will wonder if he will still be on a short pitch count and get as deep into the fifth as his teammates did before him.
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