IL1 Indianapolis Indians

Locke Leads Tribe to 2-0 Shutout of Yankees

August 3, 2012 - International League (IL1)
Indianapolis Indians News Release


ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Indianapolis starter Jeff Locke tossed 7.1 innings of shutout baseball on Friday night, striking out 10 Triple-A Yankees and leading the Indians to a 2-0 win over Scranton/Wilkes-Barre at Frontier Field.

Locke (7.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 10 K) was outstanding in his 21st start for Indianapolis, throwing into the eighth inning for the first time in 2012. He had thrown exactly 7.0 innings six times coming into the game.

His 10 strikeouts were one shy of his season-high; Locke struck out 11 Bats on May 27 in Louisville. Meanwhile, he has now tossed 14.1 straight scoreless innings across his past three outings.

Locke's stellar effort led to his ninth win of the season, at the time making him the 12th International League hurler to reach that total in 2012. He's the second Indianapolis pitcher to reach that plateau, still trailing RHP Rick VandenHurk, who has 10 wins and will likely look to extend that total on Sunday evening against these Yankees.

After recording his 10th strikeout of the ballgame to start the bottom of the seventh, Locke gave up just his third hit of the contest, a double down the right-field line by 3B Kevin Russo. The southpaw was then lifted in favor of fellow LHP Doug Slaten, who in his last outing had given up just his second earned run of the season on a game-winning home run against the Buffalo Bisons on July 31.

Slaten (0.2 IP, 1 K) recovered quickly from that falter, inducing a groundout and recording a strikeout to strand the baserunner. He has now allowed just two earned runs in 35.2 innings pitched for Indianapolis, posting a 0.51 ERA.

In the ninth inning, closer Tim Wood (1.0 IP, 1 BB, 2 K) walked the leadoff batter but worked a scoreless frame to secure the win. It was the 16th save of the season for Wood, giving him the third-highest total in the IL. He, Slaten and Locke combined for 13 strikeouts.

A day after the Indianapolis offense had exploded for 13 runs and a season-high 21 hits, the Indians mustered just four hits on Friday night but still took a two-games-to-none series lead. The big hit came off the bat of 3B Matt Hague, whose single in the top of the sixth inning drove in 2B Anderson Hernandez with the game-winning run.

The Tribe quickly added an insurance run in that same frame as 1B Jeff Clement hit a sacrifice fly to right, scoring CF Jose Tabata. The first Indianapolis run was charged to Scranton starter Michael O'Connor (5.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K), who took his sixth loss of the season although both runs scored with LHP Cory Wade (1.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB) on the mound.

The Indians had taken only two hours and 50 minutes to complete a 13-1 shellacking of Scranton on Thursday night, and on Friday night they completed their 2-0 win in just two hours and 33 minutes.

LHP Justin Wilson (8-5, 4.04) is expected to take the mound for the Indians in Saturday night's game three. Fellow LHP John Maine (5-3, 5.01) will likely start for Scranton, tossing the first pitch of the ballgame at 7:05 p.m.

The game will 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 6:45 p.m.

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