St. Paul, Minn. – Things haven’t been falling perfectly for pitcher Andy Noga in 2014. That changed Saturday night as the T-Bones gave Noga his first victory of the season with an 11-4 win over the St. Paul Saints on Saturday at Midway Stadium.
Noga (1-3) has been a hard-luck pitcher for the T-Bones but his offense offered a huge boost from the first batter of the ballgame, when T.J. Mittelstaedt led off the first with a home run, his team-leading eighth of the season, against Saints starter Robert Coe (4-4). Mittelstaedt would go on to lead the T-Bones by reaching base all six times on a four-for-four night with three RBIs and two runs scored.
Not to be outdone, Kansas City added two runs in the second on a two-run home run by Robby Kuzdale, who’s homered in both games of this series. Kuzdale had three of Kansas City’s 14 hits in a game during which every T-Bones batter reached base at least once.
Leading 4-0, the T-Bones, who scored in each of the first five innings, put the game away in the fourth. After Kuzdale led off with a double and Mittelstaedt singled, David Espinosa launched a sacrifice fly to center — the first of two for Espinosa in the game — that scored Kuzdale. Two batters later, Ray Sadler hit a three-run home run that gave Kansas City an 8-0 lead.
Although he had only one 1-2-3 inning, Noga was never in trouble. He scattered five hits and one run, along with six strikeouts and two walks, over 6 innings. It’s his first win since beating El Paso on Aug. 24, 2013, for Sioux City.
Box score: http://www.pointstreak.com/baseball/boxscoretext.html?gameid=177960