Wednesday night marked the return to action for first time this season for Brooks Lee, the consensus No. 2 prospect in Twins organization. The former first-round pick looked like he hadn’t missed a beat in helping the Saints to a  5-1 win over the Syracuse Mets at CHS Field.

Lee missed the first 56 games of the season after sustaining a herniated disc in his lower back near the end of spring training. He rejoins the Saints after a 10-game rehab assignment split between the Florida Coast League Twins and Class-A Fort Myers, where he hit .395 with 5 RBI.

Batting in the cleanup spot and playing shortstop, Lee broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth inning with an RBI single to left. It proved to be the game-winning hit.

Lee also made a standout play in the field, going into the hole at shortstop to take a hit away in the fourth inning.

“Just happy,” he said when asked how it felt to be back on the field. “Luckily, I got a hit and made a few plays, but just enjoying being with my teammates again. That love for the game never goes away, because it has been taken away from me so many times. So, no matter how I’m playing, just grateful to be on the field.”

Lee said he has dealt with back issues dating back to high school, when he missed his entire sophomore season.

“I’ve been dealing with the same thing — same pain, same flare-ups,” he said. “It feels like I have been trying to find that magic bullet and I haven’t found it yet. I don’t know if there is one; maybe a culmination of a bunch of different things.

“We’ll see if I ever figure it out. It will be a challenge, but I’m ready to take that on.”

Playing through pain has been the norm for Lee throughout his competitive baseball career. But this one proved too painful.

“It hadn’t been that bad in a long time,” he said.

Now that he’s back, Lee will have to continue to do pre- and postgame exercises to strengthen the back and keep it loose, but he said the key will not trying to do too much.

“I know I work hard, but not do too many reps of ground balls, early work or hitting before the game,” he said. “Making sure I’m ready for the game but not doing too much. That’s going to be a hard thing for me to do because I like to work through things.”

The Saints (25-31) have struggled offensively through the first two months of the season, but the return of Lee is but one reason to suggest that things could be looking up in that regard. The addition of Edouard Julien, who was sent down by the Twins on Tuesday, should provide a spark at the top of the order.

It did on Wednesday. Julien batted in the leadoff spot and hit a home run on the first pitch he faced. He nearly had a second homer in the sixth, flying out to the fence in left field.

Matt Wallner had a single in three at-bats to go along with a walk. He came into the game with seven hits in his previous 24 at-bats. All seven hits were for extra bases — three doubles and four home runs.

However, the Saints will be without outfielder DaShawn Keirsey Jr. during the current homestand. He has been placed on the 7-day injured list due to a left calf strain. Keirsey Jr. leads the team with a .302 batting average, 43 RBI and 16 stolen bases.

Briefly

Michael Helman followed Lee’s RBI single in the sixth with a three-run home run.

Louie Varland is scheduled to start Game 2 of Thursday’s doubleheader.

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The Gophers football program picked up a commitment from Caledonia, Minn., athlete Ethan Stendel on Wednesday night.

Stendel attended a camp at the U, and after speaking with head coach P.J. Fleck. He received a scholarship offer and quickly pledged to the U.

“I’m excited to announce my commitment to the University of Minnesota,” Stendel said on social media.

Stendel is listed at 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds; he might be a linebacker in college. He has been a three-sport athlete at Caledonia, including at quarterback and on the basketball and track and field teams.

Stendel, who is initially considered a two-star recruit, had other offers from North Dakota and Northern Iowa. He also had interest from Iowa State, North Dakota State.

The Gophers now have eight commitments for the 2025 class.

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The three-peat is completed.

St. Paul Academy took home its third straight Class A boys tennis state championship with a dominant 6-1 victory over Breck at Reed-Sweatt Tennis Center on Wednesday.

The Spartans became the first team to three-peat since Blake did from 2013-15 and just the fourth school in Minnesota high school boys tennis history to accomplish the feat.

“It puts us in the history books to a certain extent,” said head coach Luke Elifson. “There are a couple other teams that have three-peated in Class A, but it shows what our team is… They’ve earned that moniker.”

St. Paul Academy entered the 2024 season with the expectation of pushing for another championship. Elifson said his players “operated humbly but really with a purpose this year” after earning a reputation of winning.

“When you win one, the pressure of learning how to win is there, but then the second one… everybody knows who you are by the time you’ve won two in a row… It does ass an element of pressure and just how you approach things,” he said.

The team finished the regular season as the top-ranked team in its class with a 16-6 record. They swept both Minnewaska in the first round and Rock Ridge in the semifinal, respectively, on the way to its state championship matchup with Breck.

Despite the consistent success, St. Paul Academy assistant coach Max Hommeyer believes his team “peaked at the right time.”

“We had some rough matches. [We] lost our first match of the year, lost some tight ones in April and early-May but kind of got things rolling… really picked up at the right time,” said Hommeyer.

Prior to its three-peat, the Spartans captured back-to-back state titles in 2007 and 2008 but fell short of its third straight state title in 2009. Capturing its third straight championship puts the school in an elite class in which very few teams have been labeled – a
dynasty.

“We proved it this year that we are that good. The team earned it,” said Elifson.

Having accomplished this feat only adds more pressure for the following season. And with five players leaving the program, the pressure will fall on those returning, some of which haven’t seen a lot of action this year.

“Just putting in the work this summer,” said Hommeyer. “We have a lot of young guys who played at the bottom of the lineup who are eager to take that next step. We’re going to have five really important seniors graduate, so they [have to] step up and fill their shoes.”

“It was a really good test of where we stack up in the greater scheme of things, and it was a good way to push ourselves,” said Elifson. “You’ll again stay humble and build off that knowing we’re in Class A and there is another tier above us.”

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NEW YORK — The outcome of the game never seemed to be in question after the first inning. The bigger question, instead, was how long Yankees starter Carlos Rodón could carry his bid for perfection.

The answer was into the sixth inning, at which point Carlos Santana finally broke through, getting the Twins on the board with a solo home run.

By that point, though, the Twins were trailing by seven runs on their way to a 9-5 loss to New York on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium.

Leadoff hitter Anthony Volpe got the Yankees going with a single at 101 miles per hour off the bat off Chris Paddack, the beginning of a first inning in which the Yankees scored four runs.

Three of those runs scored with a pair of outs, including two on a Gleyber Torres double that ticked off a diving Manuel Margot’s glove in right field.

While Paddack recovered in the middle of the innings, at one point sending down 10 straight batters, a walk to D.J. LeMahieu in the fifth inning snapped that streak and spelled the beginning of the end of his night.

Paddack left his start with the bases loaded, no outs and former Most Valuable Player Aaron Judge coming to the plate, a mess that reliever Diego Castillo couldn’t clean up.

Judge smacked a triple, clearing the bases and making a game that had already felt out of reach more lopsided. The superstar drove in five of the Yankees’ runs, including another in the sixth when he drew a bases-loaded walk in an inning in which Twins pitchers walked four.

While Paddack was unable to make it through five, his teammates were stifled by Rodón, who threw six scoreless frames against the Twins last month.

The Yankees’ starter struck out nine and was perfect for 5 1/3 innings before the Twins finally broke through in his final inning of work.

And while the Twins tacked on runs in the later innings — including one on a birthday home run from Royce Lewis, which made him the first player in club history to homer in his first three games of the season — it was not nearly enough to make a true dent in the Yankees’ lead.

Fans watch as a ball hit by New York Yankees’ Gleyber Torres gets away from Minnesota Twins outfielder Manuel Margot for an RBI ground-rule double during the first inning of a baseball game Wednesday, June 5, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)