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Monthly Archives: April, 2009

Braves Pounce on Pirates

Jeff Francouer delivered a two run single in the first and Casey Kotchman added another RBI knock later in the inning to put the...

Rain in Louisville

The game between the Indy Indians and the Louisville Bats has been rained out.

Curve Get First Win; Dubee Makes Pirate Organization Debut

Altoona Curve 7, Erie SeaWolves 5

The Curve had to scratch and claw, but they held on to their lead and even picked up an insurance run in their last at-bat, to win their first game of the season.

Bats’ Homers Blast Tribe

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Louisville Bats 4,
Indianapolis Indians 1


The home run ball was the Tribe's downfall this afternoon in their first road game of the season at Slugger Field in Louisville, KY.

Bats’ Homers Blast Tribe

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Louisville Bats 4,
Indianapolis Indians 1


The home run ball was the Tribe's downfall this afternoon in their first road game of the season at Slugger Field in Louisville, KY. �

Starter Virgil Vasquez (photo) was charged with the loss, his first of the season, as he gave up three home runs. �The trouble began in the 1st inning, when�Vasquez gave up a single to 3B Adam Rosales, followed by a home run to 1B Kevin Barker. �LF Daniel Dorn led off the bottom of the 2nd inning with a solo home run over the right field wall. �Vasquez retired the side in order in the 3rd inning and worked around two singles in the 4th. �Then, in the 5th inning, Rosales added another right field solo homer. �

Vasquez allowed only 1 other hit over his 6 innings of work. �He had no walks, and struck out 5 batters. �Juan Mateo came in from the bullpen to start the 7th inning, and he retired 6 straight Bats' batters, including 2 strikeouts. �

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The Indians scored a run in the 3rd inning. �3B Anderson Machado,�(photo) making only his second start of the season, led off the inning with his first hit of the season -- a triple. �After two outs, Brian Bixler, doubled home Machado. �The Tribe scattered 5 other hits, including a double by LF�Jeff Salazar and a single by Virgil Vasquez, over the rest of the first 8 innings. �They had two baserunners on in the 6th on back-to-back singles by RF Garrett Jones and 1B Larry Broadway, but couldn't get them around to score. �

The Tribe threatened again in the 7th inning, when C Erik Kratz led off with a single and Anderson Machado walked. �Pinch-hitter Neil Walker struck out on a close pitch, CF Andrew McCutchen grounded out, and Bixler also struck out, to leave the runners stranded again. �Salazar singled to lead off the 9th inning, and he stole second base. �But two strikeouts and a ground out ended that inning, and the game. �

Chris Barnwell made his first appearance of the season for the Indians. �He played shortstop, giving Brian Bixler his first chance to move over to second base. �Barnwell went 0-for-4 at the plate. �Steve Pearce and Robinzon Diaz got the day off today. �

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Indians' Hitting Gems of the Game: �Anderson Machado, with a triple for his first hit of the season, followed by an RBI double by Bixler (photo)-- the only scoring for the Tribe. �

Indians' Defensive Gem of the Game: �Two perfect innings of relief work by Juan Mateo. �He threw 25 pitches, and 19 of them were strikes. �






NOTES:
Luis Cruz is expected to join the Tribe on Tuesday in Toledo. �

Garrett Jones' hit today gives him an 8-game hitting streak.





Go Tribe!

(Photos by Nancy Zinni --MVN)

Snell Efficient and Monroe Supplies the Boom

Craig Monroe got the start in right today and drove in six runs. He did that by clouting a pair of three run homers....

Curve Still Winless; Power Split a Double Header

Friday night's games:

West Virginia Power 3,

First Inning Errors Sink the Indians

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Louisville Bats 4,

Cruz to Indy, Phillips to White Sox

With the acquisition of Delwyn Young, the Pirates needed to make room on the active roster.

Alvarez Homers; Curve Are One-Hit

Lynchburg Hillcats 9, Winston-Salem Dash 6

3B Pedro Alvarez broke a 6-6 tie in the bottom of the 9th with his second home run of the season, a 3-run walk-off bomb to right field.

Walker’s Blast Gives The Indians a Win

IMG_9025AMcCutchenJonesWalker.JPGIndianapolis Indians 4,

Walker’s Blast Gives The Indians a Win

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Louisville Bats 2

3B Neil Walker's 2-run blast in the 6th inning broke a 2-2 tie, to get the Indians' 4-game series with the Louisville Bats off to a good start at Victory Field tonight. �[Photo: Neil Walker (right) is congratulated by Andrew McCutchen and Garrett Jones.]

After having at least one hit in each of the Tribe's first five games, Walker fell into a mini-slump, going 0-for-10 in the last two games. �Tonight Walker struck out and grounded out to first base twice, but he had the big hit when it counted in the 6th. �With one out, CF Andrew McCutchen singled into right-center field, and promptly stole second base. �After a strikeout by SS Brian Bixler, Walker took a 1-1 pitch from Louisville starter Ramon Ramirez on a rising line over the right field wall, just to the right of the 362-foot mark. �

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Louisville had scored first in the game, when starter Tom Gorzelanny (photo) gave up three consecutive 2-out hits in the first inning. �The Indians came right back in the bottom of the 2nd inning. �RF Garrett Jones led off with a double just barely inside the right field line. �He stole third base, without even drawing a throw from Bats' catcher Craig Tatum. �A sacrifice fly by 1B Steve Pearce brought Jones across the plate to tie the score at 1-1.

The Bats regained the lead in the top of the 3rd inning when 2B Adam Rosales knocked a solo homer over the left field wall. �The Indians didn't let that lead last for long, though. �In the bottom of the inning, 2B Shelby Ford led off with a single up the middle that came back past the mound so fast that it knocked Ramon Ramirez down onto his behind. �Tom Gorzelanny dropped down a perfect sacrifice bunt (photo below) to move Ford to second base. �Ford went to third when Andrew McCutchen hit an oops-checked-swing dribbler -- looked like a bunt but wasn't. �The not-a-sacrifice still did the job of moving Ford on to third base. �

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With Brian Bixler at the plate, Ford attempted to steal home plate. �His movement must have rattled the pitcher Ramirez, who balked as he threw to the plate. �The throw was well ahead of Ford, but Ford was safe on the balk, and the score was tied again. �

The score remained tied until the bottom of the 6th, when Neil Walker gave the Tribe a 4-2 lead. �

Gorzelanny pitched 5 innings, and threw 89 pitches (57 strikes). �He didn't look as tight as he did in his first start last Saturday, but he was able to get himself out of several jams. �In the first inning, after the run scored, the lefty stranded 2 runners on base. �He stranded another in the 2nd and another in the third when he walked the batter following the home run. �

Gorzelanny gave up two hits in the 4th inning, and left both of those runners on base. �He put three consecutive batters on base in the 5th, with two walks and a single, but then got a fly out to short left field and a strikeout to end that inning with the bases loaded. �
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Overall, Gorzelanny gave up 8 runs and 3 walks in his 5 innings, with 3 walks, but he left 9 base runners stranded. �The Bats left another 4 runners on base in the later innings, for a total of 13 LOB.�

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[Photo: RF Garrett Jones makes a catch in short right field in the 3rd inning -- a gust of wind took the ball at the last second, so Jones had to lean back.]

Gorzelanny must have thought that Louisville LF Norris Hopper had drawn a bulls-eye on his (Gorzelanny's) uniform top. �Hopper faced Gorzelanny three times. �In the 1st inning, he smacked a knee-high liner right back to the mound. �Gorzelanny caught that one, by sticking his glove out in front of himself just in time. �In the 2nd, he bounced a quick grounder back to
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the mound, which Gorzelanny fielded neatly and threw to first for the out. �In the 4th, Norris hit another come-backer that hit Gorzelanny's glove and trickled over behind the mound just out of everyone's reach. �Norris was safe at first on that one. �It turns out that Norris was not just aiming for Gorzelanny. �In the 6th inning, he slapped another ball right back to the mound, where reliever Denny Bautista stuck out his hand and the ball hit him, then continued on over to shortstop. �Brian Bixler was able to make the scoop and throw to first to retire Hopper. �Bautista's hand was not injured -- though he should have known better than to do that. �

Bautista put the Bats down in order in the 6th, the only inning he pitched. �He was the pitcher of record when Walker homered, so was credited with the win. �Evan Meek (at the plate in this photo) pitched the 7th a nd 8th innings. �He didn't give up a hit, but walked three batters and left them all stranded on base. �Meek got to take a turn at the plate too -- he watched three straight pitches go by for a strikeout. �Chris Bootcheck pitched the top of the 9th and gave up a 2-out hit, but then got a ground out to Bixler at shortstop to end the game. �He earned his first save of the season. �

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The Indians were very efficient at the plate tonight. �They had 5 hits total. �Four of them -- Jones' double, Ford's single, and McCutchen's single followed by Walker's homer in the 4th -- resulted in runs scoring. �The only other hit was a single by C Robinson Diaz in the 7th, and that was followed by their only walk in the game, by Steve Pearce. �Diaz and Pearce were the only two base runners the Indians left on base during the game. �
[Photo: reliever Denny Bautista]

The Indians finish the first homestand of the season with a game against the Bats on Friday night. �Then the two teams drive down I-65 to Louisville for the last two games of the series.

Indians' Hitting Gem of the Game: �Walker's 2-run homer, the game-winning runs.

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Indians' Defensive Gems of the Game: �Two plays in the 8th inning, to keep the Bats from tying the score. �CF Drew Stubbs led off the inning with a grounder deep behind first base. �2B Shelby Ford dashed to his left to field the ball, then had to spin to get the angle to throw to first, where he just got the ball there in time for the out. �A few batters later, with two runners on base and two outs, SS Chris Valaika lifted a fly ball to short right field. �If it had fallen in, a run could have scored, and the inning would have been extended. �But RF Garrett Jones came charging in and made a sliding catch just before the ball hit the ground, to end the inning. �

[Photo: �Chris Bootcheck]

NOTES:
During the later innings, a duck appeared in left field, walking along the warning track. �She waddled over toward the fowl (uh, foul) line and into the Indians' bullpen, where the kind relief pitchers shared some snacks with her. �

Go Tribe!


(Photos by Nancy Zinni -- MVN)

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