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IL1 Indianapolis Indians

Indians Sweep Away Braves with 4-2 Victory

June 21, 2012 - International League (IL1)
Indianapolis Indians News Release


LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -- Starting pitcher Rudy Owens allowed just two runs over six strong innings to earn his team-leading sixth win of the season, while RF Brandon Boggs came through with a clutch two-out two-run double in the bottom of the sixth to lead the Indianapolis Indians to a series sweep of the Gwinnett Braves with a 4-2 victory on Thursday afternoon at Coolray Field.

Owens (6.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO), who entered the contest as one of five Tribe starters with five wins, improved to 6-2 on the season by allowing just two scores on six hits and one walk over six inning pitched. The southpaw starter has now gone at least six innings in 12 of his 13 starts this season and currently owns the second best ERA in the International League at 2.38.

The only two scores plated off of Owens and the rest of the Tribe pitching staff came on one swing of the bat in the bottom of the fourth. After Braves 1B Ernesto Mejia led off the frame with a double to left, 3B Ruben Gotay launched his first homer of the season one batter later, driving in his first two runs of the season and the only tallies on the afternoon for Gwinnett.

After Owens, Tribe relievers Evan Meek, Bryan Morris and Tim Wood combined for three scoreless frames of relief to seal the victory and the series sweep. Meek (1.0 IP, 1 BB, 2 SO) struck out two in an inning of work to earn his third hold of the season, before Morris (1.0 IP, 3 H, 2 SO) worked out of a bases loaded jam with the help of an inning-ending strikeout to notch his sixth hold. Finally, Wood (1.0 IP, 1 BB, 1 SO) finished off the contest with a scoreless ninth to earn his team-leading eighth save of the season.

Indianapolis got on the board first on Thursday afternoon, thanks to the red hot bat of 3B Brian Friday. Leading off the top of the third, Friday would rip a double to left, move up to third on a sacrifice bunt by Owens and trot home on an RBI groundout by LF Gorkys Hernandez.

The two-bagger for Friday also extended his hitting streak to a current-team best 10 games during which time he is batting .355 (11-for-31) with eight runs, five doubles and four RBI. After Friday gave the Tribe an early 1-0 advantage with a double in the third, CF Starling Marte and 1B Jeff Larish connected on back-to-back doubles to lead off the fourth extending the Indians advantage to 2-0.

Gotay's bomb would, however, even the score at 2-2 heading into the sixth inning, where Boggs would come through with the clutch hit of the night. Marte began what turned out to be the game-winning rally in the sixth when he reached on an infield single with one out in the frame.

The Tribe center fielder then proceeded to steal second, prompting Gwinnett to intentionally walk Larish and put runners on first and second. Following a strikeout, Boggs would step to the plate with two outs and launch his 10th double of the season to right field to score Marte and Larish and give the contest its final score of 4-2.

Boggs finished the afternoon 2-for-3 with two RBI and is now batting .351 (13-for-37) with eight runs, five doubles and seven RBI over his last 11 games. The only other Tribe batter with multiple hits in the contest was Marte, who went 2-for-4 and extended his team best runs total to 39 by crossing the plate twice.

Gwinnett starter Todd Redmond (6.0 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 9 SO) suffered the loss to fall to 6-5 on the season, despite striking out nine in six innings of work. Following Redmond, Braves relievers Cory Gearrin (2.0 IP, 1 BB, 3 SO) and Dusty Hughes (1.0 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 SO) combined to strikeout four over three scoreless frames of relief.

With the victory the Indians have now won five straight contests and improve their overall record to 44-29 on the season. Indianapolis now returns home for an eight-game homestand beginning with a Friday night 7:15 p.m. contest against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees at Victory Field. The Tribe is expected to send defending International League Pitcher of the Week Justin Wilson to the mound, while the Yankees are scheduled to counter with RHP Ramon Ortiz.

The contest will be televised on HTSN (Hometown Sports and News), available via cable or over-the-air on digital channel 6.2. The game will also be carried on WNDE 1260 AM-WFBQ-HD2, WNDE.com and via iheartradio, a mobile application for iPhone, Blackberry and Android phones with Howard Kellman and Will Flemming on the call. The pre-game show begins at 6:55 p.m.

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Post-game quotes -- 1B Jeff Larish

(On getting the sweep and finishing with a 6-2 road trip) "Wins are always nice and when you can bundle them up like that its a pretty good trip. To end it on that, it makes for a nice bus ride home."

(On his RBI double in the fourth inning ) "I am just up there looking for a good pitch. I have been struggling with my timing, it's been pretty inconsistent this year so far. I was fortunate to get the barrel on it to put a good swing on it."

(On everything seemingly going right and firing on all cylinders) "It seems like we are getting key hits at key times and key pitching performances at the right time. It's all clicking together and hopefully we can continue that for the rest of the season."

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