IL Indianapolis Indians

Game Information: Indianapolis Indians (23-22) at St. Paul Saints (19-26)

Published on May 28, 2022 under International League (IL)
Indianapolis Indians News Release


LOCATION: CHS Field

FIRST PITCH: 8:07 PM ET

GAME #46 / Road #23: Indianapolis Indians (23-22) at St. Paul Saints (19-26)

PROBABLES: RHP Bryse Wilson (0-0, -.--) vs. RHP Ronny Henriquez (0-1, 7.20)

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

TV: MiLB TV

ABOUT LAST NIGHT: St. Paul battled back from a six-run deficit to defeat the Indians via a walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th inning last night, 9-8. The Indians got out to an early lead with six runs in the third inning, highlighted by a pair of two-run homers by Jared Oliva and Bligh Madris. The Saints offense worked quickly, cutting the Indy lead to 6-2 with two runs in the bottom half of the frame following a fielding error by Oneil Cruz in left field. With two outs in the fourth, Cruz then took one run back in the top of the fourth on his second long ball of the series. The Indians then stretched the lead back to six runs in the top of the sixth when Oliva roped an RBI triple to score Hoy Park from first base, but the Saints scored seven unanswered runs for the victory, highlighted by a three-run homer by Caleb Hamilton in the eighth inning to bring the score within one run and a game-tying solo homer by Mark Contreras with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. After the Indians stranded the bases loaded with one out in the top of the 10th, Jermaine Palacios roped an RBI single up the middle on the first pitch of the bottom half to hand Indy its first walk-off loss of the season.

CRUZING: Oneil Cruz launched his second home run of the series and his third in a six-game span last night. The 6-foot-7 shortstop has now hit safely in each of his last six games and 10 of his last 11, good for a .304 batting average (14-for-46), .587 slugging percentage and .983 OPS since 5/15. After hitting just one home run in 19 games in April, Cruz now has five home runs in 21 May games and has raised his average to .244 (21-for-86) for the month.

BLIGH GUY: Bligh Madris has now hit safely in six consecutive games with an official at-bat and has reached base safely in his last seven. Last night, he went 1-for-5 with a two-run home run for his second homer and multi-RBI game in five contests against St. Paul this week. Since 5/20, Madris is hitting .400 (8- for-20) with a .478 on-base percentage and 1.228 OPS. After appearing in just 10 April games with the Indians, the corner outfielder is hitting .283 (15-for-53) with seven extra-base hits and seven walks in 17 May games.

STILL WORKIN' IT: Ji-Hwan Bae is currently working a 24-game on-base streak, which is tied with Durham's Rene Pinto (24) for the longest active streak in the IL and trails Canaan Smith-Njigba (28) for the longest this season. Since his streak began on 4/27 at Iowa, Bae has hit safely in 19 of his 24 games with a .344 average (31-for-90), .445 on-base percentage and 1.056 OPS. All four of his home runs and 14 of his 16 total extra-base hits this season have come in that time span. He has also struck out just 13 times compared to 17 walks. Bae's longest career on-base streak lasted 25 games from 8/15-9/15/21 with Double-A Altoona, in which he registered a .348 average (31-for-89) with a .459 on-base percentage. The Indians utility man has now hit safely in his last seven games and leads all Indians batters with a .329 average (25-for-76) in the month of May.

STREAK SNAPPED: Canaan Smith-Njigba had his career-high 28-game on-base streak snapped last night when Saints pitcher Jharel Cotton committed a fielding error in his lone at-bat as a pinch hitter. The 28-gamer is the longest in his career, besting his previous career-best 27-game on-base streak set during his first professional season in 2017 with GCL Yankees East. It is the longest in the International League this season by a four-game margin, with teammate Ji-Hwan Bae and Durham's Rene Pinto following with 24-game streaks. Smith-Njigba's 28-gamer is also the longest streak by an Indians batter since Adam Frazier reached base safely in 29 straight games from 5/9-6/8/16 and is tied for the sixth-longest on-base streak by an Indians batter since 2005. The rest are listed below:

46 games, Chris Richard (5/13-7/6/06): .285 AVG (44-for-155), 10 2B, 2 3B, 7 HR, 28 RBI, 26 BB, 31 K, .391 OBP, .510 SLG, .901 OPS

42 games, Ronny Paulino (6/6-7/27/05): .359 AVG (55-for-153), 13 2B, 2 3B, 10 HR, 30 RBI, 15 BB, 24 K, .417 OBP, .667 SLG, 1.084 OPS

41 games, Ty Wigginton (6/24-8/8/05): .284 AVG (46-for-162), 9 2B, 5 HR, 26 RBI, 29 BB, 35 K, .391 OBP, .432 SLG, .823 OPS

34 games, Keon Broxton (7/3-8/11/15): .317 AVG (39-for-123), 8 2B, 5 3B, 2 HR, 19 RBI, 23 BB, 37 K, .423 OBP, .512 SLG, .935 OPS

29 games, Adam Frazier (5/9-6/8/16): .357 AVG (41-for-115), 8 2B, 1 3B, 12 RBI, 9 BB, 7 K, 7 SB, .400 OBP, .443 SLG, .843 OPS

28 games, Brian Bixler (7/20-9/5/09): .339 AVG (41-for-121), 4 2B, 4 3B, 6 HR, 18 RBI, 5 BB, 37 K, .375 OBP, .587 SLG, .962 OPS

28 games, Canaan Smith-Njigba (4/22-4/27/22): .280 AVG (26-for-93), 8 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 7 RBI, 24 BB, 26 K, .427 OBP, .419 SLG, .846 OPS

TONIGHT: The Indians will look to tie up the seven-game series with the Saints and fend off a series loss tonight at CHS Field. From 4/12-4/17, the Indians went 2-3 at St. Paul for their first series loss of the season, In 22 games in St. Paul since 2021 - which was the first season the Indians faced a team in St. Paul since 1960 - Indianapolis is 11-11. Tonight, Bryse Wilson will take the mound for Indianapolis against Ronny Henriquez.

YOU'RE NEW HERE: Bryse Wilson will make his first start with the Indians tonight after being optioned by Pittsburgh on 5/23. Wilson began the season with Pittsburgh and went 0-3 with a 7.53 ERA (24er/28.2ip) with 24 strikeouts in eight games (five starts). He has a 12.06 ERA (21er/15.2ip) with 12 strikeouts when starting compared to a 2.08 ERA (3er/13.0ip) with 12 strikeouts when coming out of the bullpen. Wilson was traded from Atlanta to Pittsburgh with Ricky DeVito in exchange for Richard Rodriguez on 7/30/21.

THIS DATE IN 2011: Shortstop Josh Harrison went 5-for-5 at Pawtucket as the Indians earned a comeback win, 9-7. Harrison finished the day with three doubles, two RBI, three runs scored and a stolen base. After falling behind 7-0 through three innings, Indianapolis put together a string of four multi-run innings, including a two-run ninth, for the win. Indy's bullpen combined for 7.0 three-hit innings to close out the game, with Tony Watson earning his first win of the season after pitching the eighth.

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International League Stories from May 28, 2022


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