IL Indianapolis Indians

Game Information: Indianapolis Indians (30-31) at Gwinnett Stripers (32-31)

Published on June 17, 2022 under International League (IL)
Indianapolis Indians News Release


LOCATION: Coolray Field

FIRST PITCH: 7:05 PM ET

GAME #62/ Road #33: Indianapolis Indians (30-31) at Gwinnett Stripers (32-31)

PROBABLES: RHP Jerad Eickhoff (3-3, 5.27) vs. LHP Tucker Davidson (1-2, 4.02)

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

TV: MiLB TV

ABOUT LAST NIGHT: The Stripers never trailed as they continued their recent dominance over the Indians last night with a 10-5 victory. After first pitch was delayed by 41 minutes, Gwinnett grabbed a brief 1-0 lead in the opening inning on a sacrifice fly. Rodolfo Castro brought the Indians back even at 1-1 in the second with a sacrifice fly of his own following Swaggerty's third three-bagger of the season, but the Stripers pulled away from there. The Stripers overshadowed Indy's three-run third inning with four runs in the second, one in the third and three in the fourth to go up 9-4. Down four through two innings, the Indians hung around thanks to a run-scoring balk, an RBI triple off the bat of Bae and a Bligh Madris infield single that made it 5-4. Swaggerty and Bae paired together for Indianapolis' final tally in the fifth. Bae reached second base on a throwing error, took third on a Madris groundout and scored on a two-out bunt single by Swaggerty. The Indians' last threat came in the sixth inning when they loaded the bases with one out, but Jared Oliva struck out and Bae grounded out.

TRIPLE CITY: Travis Swaggerty and Ji-Hwan Bae tripled in consecutive innings last night, marking the fifth game this season that the Indians have hit multiple triples in a game. Those five games are the most out of any International League team, and the Indians currently lead Triple-A and are tied for second among all 120 minor league teams with 25 triples this season. They roped 45 triples in 2011 and 2015 to mark a single-season Victory Field high. Since 2005, the Indians have had 10 seasons of five-plus games with multiple triples, with a Victory Field high of eight multi-triple games in 2012. Their last season with multiple triples in five-plus games was 2018. In 2021 and 2019 combined, the Indians had just one two-triple game.

BLIGH GUY: With an RBI single and walk last night, Bligh Madris extended his on-base streak to 23 games since 5/20. It is the third-longest active streak in the league, following Jake Cave's International League-leading 34-gamer. Since the beginning of his on-base streak, Madris has hit safely in 20 of 22 games with an official at-bat and is hitting .380 (30-for-79) with 15 extra-base hits, a .467 on-base percentage and 1.151 OPS. In 42 games with the Indians this season, Madris leads the team with a .517 slugging percentage and .904 OPS, and trails only Ji-Hwan Bae (.300) with a .299 batting average (44-for-147).

STRINGING TOGETHER STREAKS: Madris' 23-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 2016 (Adam Frazier, 29 games; Josh Bell, 25; Max Moroff, 23) that at least three Indians batters have recorded streaks of 23-plus games in a single season.

BAE'S BACK: With seven multi-hit contests in 13 June games, Ji-Hwan Bae is hitting .321 (18-for-56) for the month and leads all Indians batters with a .300 average (64-for-213) for the season. Last night, he went 2-for-5 with his fourth triple of the season and is now just one three-bagger shy of tying his single-season high from 2021 with Double-A Altoona and 2019 with Single-A Greensboro. He is currently ranked among International League leaders in runs scored (T-2nd, 45), triples (T-5th), total hits (T-6th) and average (10th) this season.

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 to avoid a series loss through the first four games at Gwinnett tonight at 7:05 PM ET. Dating back to 2018, the Indians are just 1-12 at Coolray Field, with their only win coming on 7/19/18. Since 2009, when the franchise moved from Richmond to Gwinnett, the Indians are 45-54 with a 21-34 record on the road. Tonight, Jerad Eickhoff will make his first career start against Gwinnett in five seasons in the International League. Countering for the Stripers will be southpaw Tucker Davidson, who has never faced Indianapolis.

VS. LEFT: Indians batters have hit .270 (163-for-604) with 23 home runs against left-handed pitchers this season, a better mark than against righties (.242 AVG). Despite only 30 percent of Indians at-bats coming against left-handed pitchers, 40 percent of their home runs for the season have come against southpaws. Switch-hitter Rodolfo Castro leads active Indians batters with three of his four home runs this season coming off left-handed hurlers.

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.

A GREAT VIEAUX: The Pittsburgh Pirates announced today that they have selected the contract of southpaw reliever Cam Vieaux. The 28-year-old has strung together an impressive campaign with Indianapolis so far this season. In 18 appearances (one start), he is 3-0 with a 2.28 ERA (7er/27.2ip), 23 strikeouts, 0.90 WHIP and .147 average against (14-for-95). His .148 average against in relief appearances alone leads all International League relievers with at least 20.0 innings pitched. After beginning his Triple-A career as a starter with Indianapolis in 2019, Vieaux has excelled in a bullpen role this season and posted the lowest numbers in his tenure with Indianapolis. In 39 games (22 starts) with Indy over the past three seasons, he is 9-4 with a 5.05 ERA (67er/119.1ip) and 112 strikeouts.

THIS DATE IN 2002: In a pitcher's duel that saw both pitchers go the distance, left-hander Jimmy Osting pitched his second complete game of the season and only shutout in a 2-0 win at Ottawa in Game 1 of a doubleheader. A two-run home run by Izzy Alcantara in the fourth inning was the difference in the game to give the Indians the win before they dropped Game 2, 7-2.

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International League Stories from June 17, 2022


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