Bats Rally But Come up Short in the 10th Inning, 4-3
May 22, 2019 - International League (IL1)
Louisville Bats News Release
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville Bats (18-27) dropped game number two of a three-game series with the Indianapolis Indians (24-18) in a 10-inning game despite tying the game in the bottom of the ninth inning. Brian O'Grady hit his 10th and 11th homeruns of the season.
The Bats' Vladimir Gutierrez would get into early trouble in the first inning, allowing two runs on three hits and a walk before getting out of a first-and-third situation by freezing the Indians' Pablo Reyes for a called third strike to end the inning. In the bottom half, Rob Refsnyder would quickly get one of those runs back by sending a two-out solo shot to left-center field, landing on the grassy berm.
After the shaky start, Guitierrez would settle in nicely on the hill allowing only a total of three runs on five hits with two walks and a pair of strikeouts through six innings of work. The effort was good enough to earn his second quality start of the season.
The Louisville offense would be fairly quiet until the bottom of the seventh inning when Brian O'Grady would turn on an inside hanging slider from coming at 89 MPH and pull a line-drive homerun with an exit velocity of 104 MPH down the right field line, closing the gap to just a one-run deficit. However, he would not stop there.
With one out in the bottom of the ninth, O'Grady would run into another one and hit his second homerun of the game to straight away center field off of Indians pitcher Richard Rodriguez (1-0, 9.00) on the first pitch of the at-bat, ultimately sending the game into extra innings. This would be his third multi-homer game of the season, and the Bats' ninth multi-homer game from a single player thus far this season (Louisville only had six such games in all of last season). Of the nine total multi-homer games, O'Grady has tallied three while Josh VanMeter accounted for four of them before being called up to the Cincinnati Reds on May 5.
After loading the bases with no outs in the top of the 10th, Jimmy Herget (0-2, 3.91) was able to induce a ground ball double play, but the runner on third was able to cross the plate, giving the Indians a 4-3 advantage. The Bats would be unable to respond in the bottom half of the 10th, as the Indians' Tyler Lyons would enter the game and earn his first save of the season for the Tribe.
Louisville and the Pittsburgh Pirates' Triple-A affiliate Indianswrap up their three-game series at Louisville Slugger Field tomorrow night with first pitch set for 7:00 p.m. It will be another matchup of right-handers with Jose Lopez (2-2, 5.31)getting the ball for the Bats and Eduardo Vera (2-3, 5.52)on the hill for the Indians.
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