IL Indianapolis Indians

Game Information: Indianapolis Indians (12-10) at Iowa Cubs (11-11)

Published on May 1, 2022 under International League (IL)
Indianapolis Indians News Release


LOCATION: Principal Park

FIRST PITCH: 2:08 PM ET

GAME #23 / Road #11: Indianapolis Indians (12-10) at Iowa Cubs (11-11)

PROBABLES: RHP Osvaldo Bido (0-1, 3.00) vs. RHP Adrian Sampson (0-2, 4.30)

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

TV: MiLB TV

ABOUT LAST NIGHT: The Indians offense rallied from a 3-2 deficit with a pair of ninth-inning home runs to take a 3-2 series lead against Iowa last night, 4-3. For the fifth game this series Indianapolis scored first, plating two runs in the third inning on a groundout and RBI single by Hunter Owen. Iowa then turned a 2-0 deficit into a one-run lead with three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning on an RBI single, sacrifice fly and go-ahead two-out single by P.J. Higgins. The I-Cubs' lead held until the top of the ninth, when Canaan Smith-Njigba led off with a home run to straightaway center, his first of the season. Two batters later, pinch hitter Brendt Citta launched his first Triple-A long ball to score the game-winning run. The last time the Indians rallied in the ninth inning of a road game for a come-from-behind win was 7/23/19 at Syracuse when Erik Gonzalez smacked a two-out, two-run ground-rule double to beat the Mets, 7-6.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: To cap off his 23rd birthday, Canaan Smith-Njigba launched his first Triple-A home run to straightaway center field to lead off the ninth inning and tie the game at 3-3 last night. The long ball was Smith-Njigba's first since 7/15/21 vs. Double-A Binghamton and his fifth extra-base hit of the 2022 season with Indianapolis. He is currently working a four-game hitting streak during this series at Iowa and has hit safely in nine of his last 11 games dating back to 4/15 at St. Paul.

CITTA CRUSHED IT: Brendt Citta also launched his first career Triple-A home run last night to take a 4-3 lead and win the game for the Indians in the ninth inning. He entered as a pinch hitter for catcher Jason Delay and hit his first home run since 8/1/21 vs. Double-A Harrisburg - his second homer of the 2021 season. It was the Indians' first game-winning home run in their final offensive inning on the road since Kevin Kramer launched a tiebreaking two-run home run in the top of the 10th inning at St. Paul on 5/21/21. This season, Citta has hit safely in four of his six games played with three extra-base hits and four RBI.

TREY'S TURN: Southpaw Trey McGough earned his first career Triple-A win last night and extended his scoreless streak to 5.0 innings in four appearances (one start). He tossed a season-high 2.0 innings and fanned three batters in the outing. He made his first appearance of the season on 4/20 vs. Columbus after a stint on the 7-day injured list and surrendered just one baserunner with two strikeouts in 2.0 hitless innings. McGough spent the majority of 2021 with Double-A Altoona and went 6-5 with a 3.41 ERA (36er/95.0ip) and 77 strikeouts in 18 starts. He ended the campaign ranked among all Pirates farmhands with a 1.12 WHIP (1st), 3.19 ERA (2nd), 113.0 innings pitched (3rd), .240 average against (3rd) and 19 games started (T-7th).

ROANSY DAY: Roansy Contreras, Pittsburgh's No. 4 prospect and No. 78 overall by Baseball America, surrendered just one hit with five strikeouts in 3.0 shutout innings last night at Iowa. It was the hard-throwing right-handers' second straight outing with five strikeouts, and he now owns 10 in 6.1 innings (two starts) with Indianapolis this season. Contreras began the season on Indy's Opening Day roster but was quickly recalled and has since made three big-league relief appearances with a 3.52 ERA (3er/7.2ip) and 10 strikeouts. On 4/14 vs. Washington, he surrendered just one hit over 3.0 shutout innings to earn his first major league win.

PITCHING ON POINT: The Indianapolis pitching staff's 2.39 starting ERA (18er/67.2ip) currently ranks as the best starting ERA in Triple-A and second-best among all 120 minor league teams through the team's first 22 games. Indians' starters haven't allowed an earned run since last Sunday vs. Columbus and have allowed just one unearned run in their past five games. Overall, the pitching staff has been firing on all cylinders, surrendering three-or-less runs in four of the five games at Iowa this week. The Indians are 11-1 when surrendering less than four runs, with the lone loss coming in Wednesday's 3-2 loss to Iowa.

MARTIN'S MONTH OF MASHING: Mason Martin recorded 16 extra-base hits in the month of April, the third-most in all of professional baseball behind Double-A Springfield's Moises Gomez and Lehigh Valley's Darick Hall (17). He recorded at least one extra-base hit in 12 of his 20 games played last month. Since 2005, Mason Martin's 16 XBH in April are the most ever by an Indians player in the opening month of a season (previous high: 15, Steve Pearce in April 2010) and are tied for seventh among Indians players. He's the first Indy player to collect 16-plus XBH in a single month since Kevin Kramer had 19 in June 2018. Josh Harrison holds the monthly XBH record since 2005 with 20 in June 2013.

TODAY: The Indians will look to clinch a win in the six-game set today at 2:08 PM ET in the series finale at Iowa. The Indians and I-Cubs faced off 24 times in 2021 and Indy went 11-13 with a 6-6 record at Principal Park. Indianapolis was the only team in the newly-formed Triple-A East that had a losing record against Iowa last season. In a rematch of Game 1, Osvaldo Bido will take the mound for the Indians against I-Cubs right-hander Adrian Sampson. On Tuesday, Sampson took the loss with two runs allowed in 3.2 innings. Bido began the Indians' almost-no-no bid, tossing 3.2 hitless innings with five walks and four strikeouts as the Indians worked their second shutout of the season.

BAE'S BIG DAY: Ji-Hwan Bae went 5-for-6 with two doubles and a home run on Friday night to either best or tie multiple career highs last recorded during his 2021 campaign with Double-A Altoona. In addition to setting a new career-high in base knocks with five, he scored a career-high tying three runs for the first time since 9/4/21 at Akron. It was also his second career game with three extra-base hits, the first coming on 8/8/21 at Akron. With home runs in his last two games played with Indianapolis, last night marked the second time in Bae's career that he has homered in back-to-back games (also: 7/28-29/21 at Harrisburg).

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