IL Indianapolis Indians

Doubleheader Information: Indianapolis Indians (0-1) vs. Omaha Storm Chasers (1-0)

Published on April 7, 2022 under International League (IL)
Indianapolis Indians News Release


LOCATION: Victory Field

FIRST PITCH: 6:05 PM ET / 30 mins after G1

GAMES #2 & 3 / Home #2 & 3: Indianapolis Indians (0-1) vs. Omaha Storm Chasers (1-0)

GAME 1 PROBABLES: LHP Cam Vieaux (0-0, -.--) vs. LHP Austin Cox (0-0, -.--)

GAME 2 PROBABLES: RHP Beau Sulser (0-0, -.--) vs. RHP Jon Heasley (0-0, -.--)

RADIO: FoxSportsIndy.com / Fox Sports 1260 / iHeart app

TV: MiLB TV

ABOUT TUESDAY NIGHT: The Indians lost their first season opener at home since 2018 on Tuesday night vs. the Omaha Storm Chasers, 4-1. With the teams scoreless through four innings, Omaha recorded back-to-back two-run frames to take a 4-0 lead, capped by a two-run home run by JaCoby Jones in the sixth. The Indians answered with a leadoff, solo home run off the bat of outfield prospect Cal Mitchell - his first in eight Triple-A games dating back to the end of 2021 - that scored the team's lone run of the night.

OPENING AT HOME: The Indians are now 6-7 in season openers at Victory Field dating back to the 1997 season. Their last season-opening win at home came in 2017 when they defeated the Toledo Mud Hens, 7-4. After going 5-1 through the first six season openers at Victory Field from 1997-2007, the Indians have since lost six of their last seven season openers at home.

DOUBLEHEADERS: The Indians will look for their first win of the 2022 campaign in their earliest doubleheader by games played since 2016 and earliest by date since 2014. After the first three games of the 2016 at Columbus were postponed to inclement weather, the Indians and Clippers split a season-opening doubleheader on April 10 (G1: L, 1-0; G2: W, 4-0). In 2014, the Indians swept a doubleheader for their second and third games of the season on April 5 (4-0 and 5-4), also at Columbus. Indianapolis went 3-5 in four doubleheaders in 2021 with a 2-2 record in Game 1 and 1-3 in Game 2. In their first doubleheader of last season (June 4), the Indians swept Columbus at Victory Field (10-3 and 5-2).

WE KNOW YOU: LHP Cam Vieaux and RHP Beau Sulser will take the mound for the Indians in Game 1 and Game 2 of tonights doubleheader, respectively. Both pitchers appeared with the Indians in 2021, with Sulser tying for the league-lead with a career-high 24 games started. In his first Triple-A season, Sulser went 7-9 with a 5.65 ERA (77er/122.2ip) and team-high 102 strikeouts. Vieaux, who made his Triple-A debut in 2019, owns a 6-4 record, 5.89 ERA (60er/91.2ip) and 89 strikeouts in 21 career Triple-A starts.

MITCHELL MAKES IT: OF Cal Mitchell, who enters the season rated as Pittsburgh's No. 32 prospect by Baseball America, launched his first Triple-A home run on Tuesday to score the Indians lone run of Opening Night. Mitchell was promoted to Indianapolis from Double-A Altoona on Sept. 20, 2021 and went 5-for-20 with a double and RBI in seven games to close out the season. He launched 12 home runs in 108 games with Altoona while batting for average, and ended the season ranked among Double-A Northeast leaders with 107 total hits (4th), .280 batting average (8th) and 61 RBI (9th).

PROSPECTUS: The Indians roster features nine of Pittsburgh's top 40 prospects (Baseball America). Among those are Oneil Cruz (PIT No. 1) and Roansy Contreras (PIT No. 4), who are rated as the No. 14 and No. 80 prospects in Minor League Baseball, respectively. Other names include OFs Travis Swaggerty (No. 15), Canaan Smith-Njigba (No. 28) and Cal Mitchell (No. 32), INFs Rodolfo Castro (No. 20), Ji-Hwan Bae (No. 25) and Mason Martin (No. 31), and RHP Cody Bolton (No. 30).

CRUZING: Oneil Cruz enters the 2022 campaign rated as Pittsburgh's No. 1 prospect and No. 14 overall by Baseball America. After spending most of the 2021 season with Double-A Altoona, he was promoted to Indianapolis on Sept. 20. He homered in five of his six games in an Indianapolis jersey and compiled a .524 batting average (11-for-21), .665 on-base percentage, 1.286 slugging percentage and 1.941 OPS, all of which led Triple-A East batters from Sept. 22-Oct, 2, before being recalled by Pittsburgh. On Sept. 30, his final game played with Indianapolis prior to being promoted, he became the first Indians batter since Adam Boeve in 2008 to homer in four consecutive games, a stretch that included a two-run, game-tying home run in the bottom of the ninth inning on Sept. 29 vs. Nashville. In two big-league games, he went 3-for-9 with a home run and an 118.2 mph single, which ranks as the 14th highest exit velocity by a rookie in the Statcast era.

GO DIEGO GO: Former Indians infielder Diego Castillo made his MLB debut as a defensive replacement for 3B Ke'Bryan Hayes in the first inning of today's season-opener at St. Louis after hitting .371 (13-for-35) with six home runs in 14 spring games. Castillo was named to Pittsburgh's Opening Day roster on Monday and is currently rated as its No. 16 prospect by Baseball America after a standout 2021 campaign. He was traded to Pittsburgh from New York (AL) on July 26 with infielder Hoy Park in exchange for right-handed pitcher Clay Holmes and appeared in 28 games with Altoona before being promoted to Indianapolis on Aug. 31. He began his Triple-A career with a six-game on-base streak, his second contest featuring a career-high tying four hits on Sept. 2 vs. Iowa. In 18 games with Indy, he hit .278 (15-for-54) with a .500 slugging percentage and .914 OPS.

2021 SEASON IN REVIEW: One year off an unprecedented summer without baseball in the Circle City, the Indianapolis Indians returned to Victory Field to face a new slate of opponents, some who they hadn't seen since 1997 and the American Association era. The Indians finished the season at 61-67 in fourth place of their new seven-team Triple-A East Midwest Division, 12.0 games behind the Toledo Mud Hens (74-56). Despite their second consecutive losing season, the Indians fared well against opponents above them within the division, going an even .500 against Toledo and St. Paul (3rd, 67-63). The sub-.500 mark was just the seventh in 16 seasons as Pittsburgh's Triple-A affiliate dating back to 2005, with the other losing campaigns coming from 2007-10, 2016 and again in 2019. At home, the Indians registered their 20th winning record in 25 seasons at Victory Field with a 34-30 mark. On July 1, the Indians were a season-high 11 games over .500 with a 16-5 record through the first 21 home games.

THIS DATE IN 2005: The Indians scored seven runs off right-hander Curt Schilling (L, 6.0ip, 11h, 0bb, 6k) en route to a 7-5 win over Pawtucket in front of 10,150 fans on Opening Day at Victory Field. Left-hander Zach Duke (W, 5.0ip, 6h, 3r, 3er, 0bb, 4k) and designated hitter Edwards Guzman (3-for-4, HR, 3 RBI) starred for Indy in the victory.

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