Monday
09Jun2008
Indianapolis Indians Use Longball to Slip Past the Louisville Bats in 9-7 Squeaker - Box, Recap and Play-by-Play
Monday, June 9, 2008 at 05:40PM MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com – LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Third baseman Neil Walker hammered a three-run homer with one out in the top of the ninth and Indianapolis hung on for a 9-7 victory over Louisville in front of 7,512 Sunday evening at Louisville Slugger Field.
The Indians improve to 31-34 overall and 15-18 on the road, while the Bats fall to 38-27 on the season and 20-13 at home. Indianapolis and Louisville have now split the first 10 head-to-head games in 2008.
The Tribe rallied for five runs in its final at-bat to salvage a two-game series split. LF-2B Matt Kata reached on an error to open the inning. PH Carlos Maldonado, LF Andrew McCutchen and CF Nyjer Morgan then roped three consecutive singles to tie the game at six.
Walker, the Pirates’ first-round draft pick in 2004, followed with his team-leading ninth roundtripper of the season -- a line drive over the right-field wall -- to plate McCutchen and Morgan.
Indians RHP Jesse Chavez (1.0 IP, 1 SO) nailed it down from there, tossing a scoreless ninth inning to pick up his fourth save of the campaign.
Walker (2-for-5, 2 R, 4 RBI), C Ronny Paulino (2-for-5, 1 R), SS Brian Bixler (2-for-4, 1 R, 2 RBI) and 2B Josh Wilson (2-for-3) all registered multi-hit games for the Tribe.
Walker, who also nailed a solo dinger in the first, finishes the two-game series 5-for-10 with three homers, five runs and six RBI. Paulino, who went 5-for-5 in his first Triple-A contest of the season on Saturday, wraps up the set 7-for-10 with two long balls, five runs and three RBI.
Indianapolis RHP T.J. Beam (1.0 IP, 1 H, 1 BB) improved to 2-0 with the win and has now recorded an 0.47 ERA (1 ER in 19.1 IP) over his last 13 appearances.
Louisville LHP Danny Herrera (0.1 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 3 ER) was pinned with his first blown save of the season and fell to 0-2 with the loss.
The Bats appeared to be in the driver’s seat after scoring one run in the sixth and three more in the seventh.
Louisville RF Jerry Gil opened the sixth inning with his second homer of the season -- a line shot over the right-field wall.
Bats 1B Kevin Barker and C Ryan Hanigan opened the next frame with back-to-back singles before LF Drew T. Anderson reached on a fielding error to load the bases.
Gil lifted a sacrifice fly moments later to tie the contest, while SS Adam Rosales smashed a two-run double to give Louisville a brief two-run advantage.
That’s when the Indians put together their fourth ninth-inning rally of the year to win the contest.
Neither starter -- Indianapolis RHP Luis Munoz (5.2 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 SO) or Louisville LHP Matthew Maloney (6.0 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO) -- figured in the decision.
Gil (3-for-4, 3 R, 2 RBI) and CF Chris Dickerson (3-for-5, 3 RBI) led the Bats with three base knocks apiece.
With Walker going deep twice and Bixler leaving the yard once, Indianapolis launched three more homers for a total of eight in the two-game series. The flurry of big flies comes after the Tribe whacked just 51 roundtrippers over its first 63 games of the season.
With the wind blowing out and the game-time temperature above 90 both days, the teams combined for 41 runs during the two-game series. Indianapolis belted five homers in the opener, but it wasn’t enough as Louisville rallied for a 13-12 win.
Indianapolis will enjoy a day off on Monday before moving on to a four-game set at Toledo. Indians RHP Jimmy Barthmaier and Mud Hens RHP Yorman Bazardo are the probables for the series opener on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
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