IL Indianapolis Indians

Game Information: Indianapolis Indians (6-2) at St. Paul Saints (5-3)

April 15, 2022 - International League (IL)
Indianapolis Indians News Release


LOCATION: CHS Field

FIRST PITCH: 7:37 PM ET

GAME #9 / Road #3: Indianapolis Indians (6-2) at St. Paul Saints (5-3)

PROBABLES: RHP Cody Bolton (0-0, 0.00) vs. LHP Devin Smeltzer (0-0, 0.00)

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

TV: MiLB TV

THAT'S A NO-NO: On a chilly night in St. Paul on Wednesday, three Indians pitchers - Chase De Jong, Austin Brice and Yerry De Los Santos - iced the Saints offense from start to finish en route to a 5-0 shutout for Indianapolis' 15th no-hitter in franchise history and the first since 2012. De Jong retired the first seven batters he faced before issuing a one-out walk in the third inning. His only blemish over his final four innings pitched was another walk - a two-out free pass to Jake Cave in the fourth inning. He finished his 7.0 no-hit innings with nine strikeouts, six coming in his last 10 batters faced. Through 80 pitches, De Jong was relieved by Austin Brice for the eighth and Yerry De Los Santos closed out the feat in the ninth. The Saints threatened to break up the effort with sinking liners in each of the final two frames, but strong defense by Cal Mitchell and Canaan Smith-Njigba saved the no-no. De Los Santos caught Jose Miranda looking for the final out of the game.

ABOUT THE OFFENSE: As the Indians pitching staff made quick work of the Saints on Wednesday, the offense took the lead in the fourth inning and put up four runs in the eighth en route to the 5-0 win. Rodolfo Castro gave Indianapolis the lead with a towering solo home run to right field for his first long ball of the season. Oneil Cruz scored Ji-Hwan Bae on a fielder's choice to spark the four-run late inning, and Mason Martin and Cal Mitchell followed up with RBI doubles. Mitchell was the only Indians batter to notch two hits and two RBI in the contest.

THE LAST TIME: Indy's last no-hitter came on Aug. 9, 2012 against Charlotte at Victory Field. Justin Wilson threw 8.0 innings and issued just one walk in the rain-shortened, 3-0 triumph. The last combined no-hitter for Indianapolis occurred at Durham on April 29, 2012 when Wilson, Jose Diaz and Doug Slaten silenced the Bulls. Five of the 15 no-hitters in franchise history are combined efforts.

IN THE IL: After throwing the first no-hitter of the Minor League Baseball season on Wednesday, the Indians currently rank first among all Triple-A teams and fourth among all 120 MiLB teams with a 2.39 ERA (17er/64.0ip) in eight games. Since last Friday, Indianapolis owns a minors-leading 0.88 ERA (4er/41.0ip) and has not allowed more than two earned runs in a single outing. At the plate, the Indians rank third in the International League with a .263 batting average (63-for-240) for the season.

GOING STREAKING: With Wednesday's win at St. Paul, the Indians tied their 2021 season-high winning streak of five games (2x: 6/12-17, 8/5-10) and have a chance to best that tonight. In the last five games, Indy has an advantage against its opponents in hits (42-26), extra-base hits (17-8) and runs scored (27-6). The Indians have won four of the of the five games decisively, with the streak-opening win on Friday, April 8 vs. Omaha being the only one-run game (Indians won via walk-off in the bottom of the ninth). The largest margin of victory during the four games was on April 9 vs. Omaha, 7-1.

IN A GROOVE: Rodolfo Castro launched his first home run of 2022 on Wednesday night to score the first Indians run in the shutout win. Through his first eight games of the season, Castro owns a .409 batting average (9-for-22), .548 on-base percentage and 1.230 OPS. On Sept. 27, 2021, he was named the Triple-A East Player of the Week after hitting a league-high three home runs and ranking in the top 10 in slugging percentage (2nd, 1.118), hits (T-2nd, 8), extra-base hits (T-2nd, 5), batting average (3rd, .471), OPS (3rd, 1,618), total bases (3rd, 19), runs scored (T-3rd, 6), RBI (T-3rd, 7) doubles (T-4th, 2) and on-base percentage (T-8th, .500) for the week prior.

MARTIN MASHING: Mason Martin has recorded at least one extra-base hit in five of his seven games this season to rank among International League leaders in XBH (T-2nd, 7), slugging percentage (5th, .769), OPS (9th, 1.139) and total bases (T-9th, 20). He is currently hitting .346 (9-for-23) with four doubles, two triples, one home run and six RBI to begin the season. In 15 career Triple-A games dating back to last season, the hard-hitting first baseman owns a .294 batting average (15-for-51), 10 extra-base hits and 12 RBI. In 2021, he led all Pirates minor leaguers with 25 home runs between Double-A Altoona and Indianapolis.

DRIVING 'EM IN: Cal Mitchell's RBI streak is now at seven games, tied with six former Indy players for the longest such streak since 2005. Others to accomplish the seven-game RBI streak since '05 include Carlos Maldonado (2006), Pedro Alvarez (2010), Brandon Moss (2010), Andrew Lambo (2014), Deibinson Romero (2015) and most recent prior to Mitchell's season-opening streak, Willy Garcia (Aug. 1-8, 2015).

BAE ON BASE: Ji-Hwan Bae extended his hitting streak to seven games to begin his Triple-A career. On Wednesday, Bae went 1-for-4 with a stolen base and scored an insurance run to spark the four-run eighth inning. His seven-game hitting streak is his longest to begin a season since being signed by the Pirates as a non-drafted free agent. Rated as Pittsburgh's No. 25 prospect by Baseball America, the South Korea native spent the majority of the 2021 season with Altoona and hit .278 (89-for-320) in 83 games. He ranked among Pirates farmhands in triples (T-4th, 5), stolen bases (T-5th, 20), runs (T-7th, 66) and average (7th, .281).

TONIGHT: The Indians will look to win six consecutive games for the first time since April 7-13, 2019 tonight at St. Paul after being postponed due to inclement weather last night. Last year, Indianapolis' second road trip began with six games in St. Paul and they went 4-2 with three consecutive wins from 5/20-22. In 12 games at CHS Field, the Indians went 7-5 with a 5-7 record vs. the Saints at Victory Field. RHP Cody Bolton will take the mound for his third outing of 2022 tonight vs. St. Paul's LHP Devin Smeltzer.

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