IL1 Indianapolis Indians

Iron Pigs Get Past Indians

Published on June 23, 2009 under International League (IL1)
Indianapolis Indians News Release


ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- Left fielder Rich Thompson and first baseman Andy Tracy combined for five of their teams seven hits, while starter Rodrigo Lopez struck out seven in seven innings of work to lead the Lehigh Valley IronPigs past the Indianapolis Indians 6-3 Tuesday night at Coca-Cola Park.

With the loss the Indians drop to 33-37 overall and 17-16 on the road, while the win moves the IronPigs to 33-37 on the season and 15-20 at home. With the victory, Lehigh Valley remains the hottest team in the International League, having won nine of their last 11 games and improves their record to 4-1 against Indianapolis so far this season.

Thompson (3-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI), who played for Indianapolis in 2005 and 2006, remained red hot for the IronPigs as his game high three base knocks extended his team-best hitting streak to nine games. During his streak, Thompson is now batting .351 (13-for-37) with four runs and three RBI and has helped to lead Lehigh Valley to victories in all but one game since the streak began back on June 12.

Along with Thompson, Tracy (2-for-3, 2 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI) helped the IronPigs power to a series opening victory with two hits, two runs scored and his team leading 13th home run of the season. The solo shot for Tracy, not only provided a much important insurance run for Lehigh Valley in the sixth inning, but also for the time being moved him into sole possession of second place in two major offensive categories in the International League with 13 homers and 50 RBI on the season.

While Thompson and Tracy led the way offensively for the IronPigs, it was starter Rodrigo Lopez who dominated on the mound. Lopez (7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 SO) turned in his second straight seven inning performance for the IronPigs, allowing just two unearned runs on four hits and striking out seven to pick up the win and improve to 4-4 on the season.

Besides Tracy's longball in the sixth and Thompson's RBI single in the seventh, the IronPigs plated their other four runs on sacrifice flies by 2B J.J. Furmaniak and RF Mike Cervenak as well as a single by SS Miguel Cairo and double error by the Indians. IronPigs C Lou Marson walked twice and scored on the Furmaniak sacrifice fly and the Thompson single to plate multiple runs for just the third time this season and the first time since May 26.

Lehigh Valley also got excellent work from its bullpen as LHP Jack Woods (0.1 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 SO) and LHP Cedrick Bowers (1.1 IP, 1 H, 1 SO) combined for 1.2 innings of scoreless relief with Woods notching his second hold of the season and Bowers collecting his second save.

The Indians did jump out to an early 1-0 lead behind CF Jeff Salazar, who roped a one-out first inning single and eventually came around to score on an RBI groundout by RF Garrett Jones. Salazar (2-for-3, 1 R), who turned in the only multi-hit performance for the Tribe on the evening, also stole his team leading 15th base in the opening frame, before moving to third base on an IronPigs' throwing error that allowed him to be able to score on Jones' groundout.

Indianapolis C Erik Kratz drove in the Tribe's other two runs with an RBI groundout in the sixth that plated Jones and a run scoring single that brought home 2B Brian Bixler in the eighth. The multi-RBI effort for Kratz was just his third such output this season and his first since May 15, while the runs scored for Jones and Bixler gave them each a team best 40 so far this season.

Tribe starter Virgil Vasquez (1.0 IP) tossed a perfect first inning before leaving the game for undisclosed reasons. In his place Indians' reliever Ty Taubenheim (5.0 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO) took the loss to drop to 4-7 on the season after allowing four runs on five hits in five innings of work.

Indianapolis continues their four-game series at Lehigh Valley on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. Pittsburgh Pirates top pitching prospect RHP Brad Lincoln is scheduled to make his first career Triple-A start for Indianapolis on Wednesday, while LHP Gustavo Chacin is expected to get the nod for the IronPigs.

The contest will be carried by WXLW-950 AM and www.IndyIndians.com with Howard Kellman and Scott McCauley. The pre-game show begins at 6:45 p.m.

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International League Stories from June 23, 2009


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