Twins prospect Matt Wallner is first player in St. Paul Saints history to hit for the cycle
One of the top prospects the Minnesota Twins have is Forest Lake native and former Minnesota Mr. Baseball Matt Wallner, and he had himself a historic night Thursday becoming the first player in St. Paul Saints history to hit for the cycle.
Wallner, rated the Twins' No. 5 prospect by MLB Pipeline, tripled in the eighth inning to complete the cycle. No Saints player dating back to 1993, when the team was an independent in the America Association, had completed the cycle.
MATT WALLNER HAS HIT FOR THE CYCLE pic.twitter.com/7CKSbAWasO
— St. Paul Saints (@StPaulSaints) September 2, 2022
Wallner finished the night 5-for-6 with 6 RBIs.
- 1st inning: Double
- 3rd inning: Single
- 4th inning: Homer
- 6th inning: Strikeout
- 8th inning: Triple
- 8th inning: Double
The home run he hit was a moonshot that traveled 456 feet, with the baseball leaving his bat at a blistering 110 mph.
That one ain't coming back! ☄️@Matt_Wallner's 3-run home run makes it 8-4 Saints#StPaulSaints x @ticasino pic.twitter.com/SMU2iWxbj6
— St. Paul Saints (@StPaulSaints) September 2, 2022
Wallner was promoted to Triple-A St. Paul in early July, but he hit just .105 with the Saints in July before turning it on in August, when he hit .263 with 4 homers, 8 doubles and 15 RBIs.
Add in his monster night to start September and he's batting .300 in his last 100 at-bats with 5 homers, 10 doubles, 2 triples and 21 RBIs.
The Saints beat Omaha 18-6 Thursday night.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.