IL Indianapolis Indians

Game Information: Indianapolis Indians (30-30) at Gwinnett Stripers (31-31)

June 16, 2022 - International League (IL)
Indianapolis Indians News Release


LOCATION: Coolray Field

FIRST PITCH: 7:05 PM ET

GAME #61/ Road #32: Indianapolis Indians (30-30) at Gwinnett Stripers (31-31)

PROBABLES: RHP Osvaldo Bido (1-3, 4.60) vs. RHP Bryce Elder (2-3, 5.66)

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

TV: MiLB TV

ABOUT LAST NIGHT: Jared Oliva launched his fifth homer of the season, but a three-run seventh inning gave the Stripers a come-from-behind victory over the Indians on Wednesday night, 5-4. The Stripers opened the scoring in the first off a two-run RBI single by Joe Dunand with the bases loaded and two outs. The Indians would respond in the following frame with a two-run homer by Oliva to even the score 2-2. After a leadoff double by Ji-Hwan Bae, Travis Swaggerty grounded a ball into the gap to send Bae home and give Indy a 3-2 lead. Back-to-back errors led to the Indians fourth run of the ballgame. A three-base throwing error by pitcher Connor Johnstone, and a fielding error by first basemen Greyson Jenista on a ground ball hit by Swaggerty led to Bae scoring and extending the lead to 4-2. In the bottom of the seventh, Gwinnett scored three runs to take a 5-4 lead. After an RBI double by Chadwick Tromp and a wild pitch by Cam Alldred to tie the game, a sacrifice fly by Drew Waters plated the go-ahead run.

OLIVA OWNS IT: Jared Oliva launched his fifth home run of the season and second in his past seven games last night at Gwinnett, a two-run shot to tie the game in the third inning. He has now hit safely in seven consecutive games since 6/7 and has scored at least one run in each of his last six, which is tied for the second-longest such active streak in the International League this season. In that seven-game time span, he is hitting .320 (8-for-25) with four extra-base hits, five RBI and seven runs scored. His seven-game hitting streak is currently tied for the fifth-longest active streak in the league. His run-scoring streak is tied for the third longest by an Indians batter this season, following Oneil Cruz (7 games, 5/22-29; 6 games, 4/7-13), Mason Martin (7 games, 5/13-20).

BLIGH GUY: For the second night in a row, Bligh Madris led the Indians offense with two hits last night at Gwinnett to extend his on-base streak to 22 games since 5/20. It is currently tied for the third-longest active streak in the league, following Jake Cave's International League-leading 33-gamer. Since the beginning of his on-base streak, Madris has hit safely in 19 of 21 games with an official at-bat and is hitting .387 (29-for-75) with 15 extra-base hits, a .471 on-base percentage and 1.178 OPS. In 41 games with the Indians this season, Madris now leads the team with a .301 batting average (43-for-143), .524 slugging percentage and .911 OPS.

STRINGING TOGETHER STREAKS: Madris' 22-game on-base streak is the third-longest by an Indians batter this season, following Canaan Smith-Njigba and Ji-Hwan Bae who each notched 28-game streaks. It is the first time since 2017 (Jacob Stallings and Erich Weiss, 24 games; Max Moroff, 22 games; Jason Rogers, 21 games) that at least three Indians batters have recorded streaks of 20-plus games in a single season.

BOLTON ON THE BUMP: After Zach Matson opened the game with two runs allowed in the first inning yesterday, Cody Bolton took the mound and surrendered just one hit over 3.0 scoreless innings as the Indians took the lead against the Stripers, 3-1, through the first four innings. Bolton faced the minimum and made quick work of the opposing offense, throwing 19 of his 29 total pitches for strikes. It was his second shortest outing by pitch count of the season, following 4/9 vs. Omaha when he threw 18 pitches in an opening role. Bolton has been solid for Indy this season, going 1-1 with a 2.97 ERA (13er/39.1ip) and 45 strikeouts through 13 games (eight starts).

TONIGHT: After taking four of six games against Columbus last week at Victory Field, the Indians are looking for their first win of the six-game series at Gwinnett tonight at 7:05 PM ET. Gwinnett dominated the last meetings of the two teams, taking eight of nine games between two series at Coolray Field and one at Victory Field in 2019. The Indians have not won a game at Gwinnett since 7/19/19 and haven't won more than one game in a season there since going 4-3 in 2017. Since 2009, when the franchise moved from Richmond to Gwinnett, the Indians are 45-51 with a 21-31 record on the road. Tonight, Osvaldo Bido will take the mound for his first career start vs. Gwinnett, while Bryce Elder will counter for the Stripers.

STEALING SPLITS: The Indians rank fifth among all Triple-A teams and third in the International League with 73 stolen bases this season, which has surpassed their total from both 2021 (71) and 2019 (69). When broken down between home and road games, the Indians move up to second in all of Triple-A behind Buffalo (50) with 46 stolen bases in home games. They are 46-for-58 in stolen base attempts in 29 games at Victory Field and are 27-for-36 in attempts in 31 road games.

STARTING STRONG: Indians starting pitchers have compiled a 3.73 ERA (81er/195.2ip) to rank first among all 30 Triple-A teams so far this season. They also have thrown the least amount of innings in Triple-A and the second-lowest in minor league baseball, following Single-A Rancho Cucamonga with 170.2 innings.

WELCOME TO TRIPLE-A: The Indianapolis Indians, in conjunction with the Pittsburgh Pirates, announced today that the organization's No. 11 prospect (MLB Pipeline), right-handed starting pitcher Mike Burrows, has been promoted from Double-A Altoona to Triple-A. The 22-year-old is currently tied for the Eastern League lead with 12 starts and ranks sixth among league leaders with a 2.94 ERA (17er/52.0ip) this season. In his dozen outings, he also ranks among league leaders with a .199 average against (6th), 69 strikeouts (7th) and 1.10 WHIP (10th). Prior to his final start with Altoona on June 14, he led all league qualifiers with a 2.13 ERA (12er/50.2ip). On May 26 at Harrisburg, Burrows surrendered just two hits over a career-long 7.0 scoreless innings. He then followed that outing with a season-high nine strikeouts in 5.0 one-hit innings two starts later on June 8 (1) at Reading, just one strikeout shy of his career-high 10 set on July 7, 2021 with High-A Greensboro vs. Asheville. In six starts on the road, he is 2-0 with a 0.61 ERA (2er/29.2ip) and 42 strikeouts.

THIS DATE IN 2007: Southpaw Shane Youman fanned 10 Durham Bulls over 7.1 one-run innings for the first 10-plus strikeout outing by an Indians pitcher in the 2007 season, and the first in consecutive days. With Youman's third win of the season, the Indians improved to 40-27 on the season. The next day, right-hander John Wasdin also stretched his outing into the eighth inning and fanned 12 batters, but the Indians lost via a four-run eighth inning 7-3.

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