Worcester: W, 5-4 (BOX SCORE)
While the Red Sox were losing to the Astros, the WooSox were in St. Paul for a 2:10 PM first pitch following Tuesday’s 19-3 rout of the Saints (Twins AAA). Jack Anderson fell into a 4-0 deficit in the third inning via a grand slam that put St. Paul’s win expectation at 88%, but the bullpen gave the team the opportunity to catch up, as the Saints had just one runner reach third after Anderson’s afternoon ended in the fourth, where Tyler Samaniego promptly slammed the door after giving up two walks.
The Woosox came back from 4-0 gradually. After a Tsung-Che Cheng home run, Worcester started the seventh inning still down 4-1. But Nick Sogard (who’s OPS remains above 1.000 in the young season) and Braiden Ward drew walks, and were both advanced by Mikey Romero’s third hit of the afternoon. Ward eventually scored via a Kristian Campbell sac fly to make it a 4-2 game. Matt Thaiss had a ground-rule double RBI to cut St. Paul’s lead in half, and greatly increase the team’s WPE from the original 23% up to 40$%. (The 2026 Red Sox could never… or at least not this early in the season!)
While the top half of the lineup came through for the lion’s share of Worcester’s offensive activity on Tuesday, Wednesday’s contributions were a little more concentrated near the bottom of the lineup. In the six hole, Cheng had two other hits in additio nto his homer, including one that kept the game moving in the ninth. His sac fly got the game to Matt Thaiss, who would play hero. On Mickey Gasper’s afternoon off from mashing in the early going, the former Rays catcher notched his third hit, which scores Matt Lloyd for what would be end up as the game-winning run.
Wyatt Olds got the win with a gutsy 36-pitch, six-out relief appearance, pitching a flawless ninth after gaining the lead after initially getting into some trouble in the eighth.
Have a happy Thursday, and, for just a day, enjoy watching baseball that doesn’t have us cussing at our televisions.
