Buffalo Bisons 5, Indianapolis Indians 4
(Box)
A home run by Buffalo Bisons’ Zach Lutz in the top of the 11th gave Buffalo the win over the Indianapolis Indians tonight at Victory Field. After the Indians tied up the game at 4-4 in the bottom of the 9th, the Indians could not score again in the 10th. After he Bisons took the lead, the Indians could not get anything going in the bottom of the 11th, and Buffalo had the win. That gives the two teams a split of this 4-game series, and it gave the Indians a 5-3 win of the season series with Buffalo.
Chris Leroux made the start for the Indians, his second start of the season. Leroux faced the minimum number of Buffalo batters over the first four innings. He gave up singles in the 2nd and 3rd, and walked a batter in the 4th. Each of those batters was erased with a double play — one double play in each of three consecutive innings. It was a 4-6-3 play (2B Anderson Hernandez to SS Chase d’Arnaud to 1B Jeff Clement) in the 1st to end the inning. Hernandez and d’Arnaud traded places in the 3rd inning (6-4-3), for the first and second outs. It went back to 4-6-3 in the 4th, again for the first and second outs.
The Indians put two base runners on over their first three at-bats. 3B Matt Hague worked a walk in the 1st inning, but was left on base. LF Yamaico Navarro led off the 2nd inning with a bloop single into left field, but he was thrown out trying to steal second base.
1B Jeff Clement put the Indians onto the scoreboard in the bottom of the 4th with a solo home run that left the yard just inside the left field foul pole. It was Clement’s 15th homer of the season. The Bisons came right back to take the lead in the top of the 5th. 3B Zach Lutz led off the inning with a line drive single under Chase d’Arnaud’s dive and into left field. Moments later, 2B Josh Satin blasted a 2-run homer over the wall in left-center field, to take a 2-1 lead.
The Indians tied the game in the bottom of the 5th. C Tony Sanchez worked a walk to begin the frame. RF Brandon Boggs ripped a double into the left-center field gap. Sanchez was off and running, and raced around to score from first base, tying the score at 2-2.
Leroux pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the 6th, which ended his evening’s work. He had allowed the 2 Buffalo runs on 5 hits and a walk, with 5 strikeouts. Leroux threw 72 pitches (49 strikes).
Logan Kensing took over for Leroux to begin the top of the 7th. He was greeted by Lutz’s solo home run, which gave the Bisons a 3-2 lead. Kensing walked 1B Adam Loewen, who stole second base. Kensing got a ground out, but manager Dean Treanor had seen enough. Kensing was relieved by Bryan Morris, who came into the game in a double switch with Jose Morales also taking over behind the plate. Morris began with a wild pitch, which allowed Loewen to move up to third base. Then Morris gave up an RBI double to CF Kirk Nieuwenhuis, which drove in Loewen, increasing the Buffalo lead to 4-2.
The Tribe went down in order in the 7th and the 8th, while Indians’ reliever Jose Diaz retired the Bisons in order in the 8th. Tim Wood took the 9th. He gave up a single to Satin, but struck out the other three batters he faced in that inning.
The bottom of the 9th began with a single lined into left field by Clement. After a fly out, Clement took second base on a wild pitch, then pinch-hitter Jeff Larish walked to put two Tribe runners on base. RF Brandon Boggs followed with a line drive along the right field line and into the corner, where it bounced around for a moment. That gave both base runners time to come around to score, leaving Boggs on second base, and tying the game at 4-4. Boggs was able to reach third base, but got no further, sending the game into extra innings. Tim Wood kept the Bison from scoring in the 10th, with a perfect inning. Doug Slaten came on to pitch the 11th. He was charged with the loss when he gave up the game-winning home run to Lutz
The Indians managed just 6 hits, while the Bison had 10 hits. Jeff Clement and Brandon Boggs each had 2 hits, and both of Boggs’ were doubles.
Indians’ Hitting Gem of the Game: Brandon Boggs’ pair of RBI doubles. In the bottom of the 5th, his double into the left-center gap drove in Tony Sanchez from first base to tie the score at 2-2. In the 9th, Boggs’ 2-run double drove in both Jeff Clement and Jeff Larish, to tie the score at 4-4. “I just knew that I couldn’t try to do too much in that situation,” related Boggs after the game. “I know I was in a hitter’s count. At times like that in this league, guys aren’t going to come at you with a fastball. He didn’t, so he threw me a changeup and … he left it middle. I was able to stay inside of it enough to keep it fair down the line. I just didn’t try to swing too much. If I tried to swing harder, I might have missed it or ended up grounding into a double play.”
Indians’ Defensive Gem of the Game: Three double plays in three consecutive innings were very nice. Then, in the 7th, SS Chase d’Arnaud went deep into the hole to his right to make a play on Josh Satin’s grounder. When d’Arnaud had the ball, he made an off-balance throw across his body to first base. Jeff Clement had to reach to make the catch, for the out on Satin.
NOTES
All kinds of roster moves, relating to the trades today:
Daniel McCutchen was called back up to the Pirates, to take Brad Lincoln’s spot in the bullpen, after Lincoln was traded to the Blue Jays. There are rumors that this might be just temporary for McCutchen.
Gorkys Hernandez was traded to the Marlins, in exchange for 1B Gaby Sanchez, reliever Kyle Kaminska, and a compensatory balance pick in the next draft.
This wraps up the Indians’ home stand. They have an “off” day on Wednesday, though they leave for a bus ride to Rochester, NY in the early evening. In Rochester, the Indians will play a 4-game series against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees. The Yankees’ own stadium in Scranton, PA, is being renovated this season, so they are borrowing other stadiums to play their home games. Frontier Field in Rochester has hosted the majority of their games, but they have also played at the small field in Batavia, NY (New York/Penn League), which is about half way between Rochester and Buffalo.
