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IL Indianapolis Indians

Game Information: Louisville Bats (11-17) vs. Indianapolis Indians (14-13)

May 8, 2022 - International League (IL)
Indianapolis Indians News Release


LOCATION: Victory Field

FIRST PITCH: 1:35 PM ET

GAMES #28 / HOME #17: Louisville Bats (11-17) vs. Indianapolis Indians (14-13)

PROBABLES: RHP Graham Ashcraft (1-1, 1.99) vs. RHP Miguel Yajure (0-0, -.--)

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

TV: MiLB TV / WISH-TV 8

ABOUT LAST NIGHT (THURSDAY'S VERSION): Thursday's suspended game picked up in the bottom of the ninth inning last night and was completed in the 10th with Louisville prevailing, 7-5. With a chance to walk it off, the Indians went down quietly in the ninth before the Bats plated two runs in the 10th off Cristofer Melendez on a bases-loaded single by Michael De Leon. It was the eighth time this season the Indians gave up a lead (leading 5-4 through eight innings) and lost the game.

ABOUT LAST NIGHT (REGULARLY SCHEDULED VERSION): The Indians never trailed for their first win of the series in the nightcap last night, scoring in five of their eight offensive half innings. Mason Martin gave Indy the lead with a sacrifice fly in the first, and Oneil Cruz plated two in the second with a two-out double into the right-center gap. Ji-Hwan Bae pushed the margin to 4-0 with a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning, and Cruz followed with a towering solo home run into the center field shrubs. Leading 6-1 in the seventh, the Indians peppered the scoreboard two more times thanks to five consecutive singles by Cal Mitchell, Hunter Owen, Bligh Madris, Jason Delay and Bae ahead of Cruz being hit-by-pitch to force home Indy's final run.

CRUZ MISSILE: Oneil Cruz smoked a two-run double and solo home run last night - both tracking at 113-mph exit velocities - to record his third career four-RBI game. It was his first since 6/2/21 with Double-A Altoona at Richmond. It was also his fourth multi-RBI game this season, following Thursday's suspended game (finished yesterday as the opener) in which he roped a two-run Triple. As for his scorched hits yesterday, Cruz is known for hitting the ball hard. In two big-league games to end his 2021 campaign, he went 3-for-9 with a home run and an 118.2-mph single, which ranks as the 14th highest exit velocity by a rookie in the Statcast era.

ROANSY DAY: Roansy Contreras, Pittsburgh's No. 4 prospect and No. 78 overall by Baseball America, made his third start with Indianapolis last night and surrendered just one hit in 4.0 shutout innings. He fanned a season-high six batters in the start, marking his fifth consecutive outing with five-plus strikeouts. He began the season with no strikeouts in his first outing (1.2) in which he surrendered two earned runs. In his last five appearances between Indianapolis and Pittsburgh, he owns a 1.10 ERA (2er/16.1ip) with 26 strikeouts.

QUICK CATCHERS: Jason Delay roped a triple in the second inning last night for the third three-bagger or his professional career and his first since 5/4/19 with Altoona at Richmond. It was the first triple by an Indians catcher since Christian Bethancourt on 8/14/21 vs. St. Paul. Since 2005, Indians catchers have roped a total of 22 triples, with multiple triples at that position coming in six seasons (2018, '15, 2010-11, '08, '05). Within that time span, the highest single-season record in catcher triples came in 2008 when Michel Hernandez (2), Robinzon Diaz and Ronny Paulino combined for four.

PICKING BACK UP: Canaan Smith-Njigba had his team-high tying seven-game hitting streak (also: Ji-Hwan Bae, 4/5-13) snapped with an 0-for-4 showing in Thursday's suspended game, but picked up right where he left off in the nightcap last night with two singles. Dating back to 4/27 at Iowa and the beginning of his streak, Smith-Njigba is hitting .300 (9-for-30) with three extra-base hits and nine walks to 10 strikeouts in nine games. In his first 14 games, he hit .196 (10-for-51) with three doubles and four walks to 17 strikeouts.

BAE BATTING: Ji-Hwan Bae went 1-for-2 with two walks, two RBI and two runs scored in Indy's win last night to extend his hitting streak to five games. He has now hit safely in seven of his last eight games. His hot streak began with his first home run of the season on 4/27 at Iowa and followed with another the next day, marking the second time in his career that he has homered in back-to-back games (also: 7/28-29/21 at Harrisburg). Dating back to 4/27, he is hitting .387 (12-for-31) with 10 runs scored, a .487 on-base percentage and 1.229 OPS. He has only struck out four times compared to taking seven walks in that time frame.

PITCHING PRODUCES: Indy's starting pitching corps owns a minor-league leading 2.13 ERA (20er/84.1ip) in 27 games this season, which ranks second to only the Los Angeles Dodgers (1.86) as the lowest in all of professional baseball. Overall, Indy's pitching staff has been firing on all cylinders, ranking second in Triple-A with a 3.55 ERA (92er/233.0ip) and .217 average against (187-for-863), each trailing only Nashville (2.78 ERA, .210 AVG). Indianapolis' pitchers also own a collective 1.24 WHIP, which ranks third in Triple-A behind Nashville (1.21) and Gwinnett (1.24).

TODAY: The Indians will look to cut the season series deficit vs. Louisville to 3-2 today in their final game of the five-game set this week. The Indians lost the first three games of the series to lose their first series at home vs. the Bats since 4/19-21/19 (1-2). Indianapolis and Louisville face off a total of 18 times this season, with 12 of those contests played at The Vic (also: 8/2-7). Last year the Indians went 8-10 against the Bats including a 3-3 mark at Victory Field, marking Indy's first season-series loss to Louisville since 2016 (12-14). Today, Miguel Yajure will take the mound for his first start with the Indians this season. Countering for the bats will be Graham Ashcraft, who surrendered five runs (three earned) in 5.1 innings on 5/1 at Columbus.

YA-HOO IS HERE: After being one of Indy's best starting pitchers in 2021, Miguel Yajure will take the mound today for his first Triple-A start of 2022. In nine starts with the Indians last season, he went 2-3 with a 3.09 ERA (15er/43.2ip) and 40 strikeouts. Yajure, who entered the season rated by MLB Pipeline as Pittsburgh's No. 16 prospect, began 2022 with Pittsburgh and went 1-0 with an 11.32 ERA (13er/10.1ip).

THIS DATE IN 1950: Indianapolis starting pitcher Bill Pierro took a no-hitter into the eighth inning until center fielder Archie Wilson broke up the bid with a two-out single for the Kansas City Blues. That was the only hit allowed by Pierro in his 9.0-inning complete-game effort that featured nine strikeouts.

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