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IL1 Indianapolis Indians

Six-Run First Propels Tribe to Seventh Straight Win

June 23, 2012 - International League (IL1)
Indianapolis Indians News Release


INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indianapolis Indians exploded for six runs in the first inning on the way to their seventh straight victory as center fielder Starling Marte went 3-for-5 with two runs and two RBI in an 8-3 win over the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees in front of a crowd of 11,552 on Saturday night at Victory Field.

The Indians left little doubt early on in Saturday night's contest as the first six batters all reached base and the offense went on to plate six scores on five hits, three walks and a hit by pitch in the first frame.

LF Gorkys Hernandez led off the bottom of the first with a single to center, before moving up to second on a pickoff attempt throwing error by Scranton starter John Maine. SS Chase d'Arnaud followed Hernandez with a walk, before Marte brought home the game's first score with a line drive single to left.

DH Jake Fox followed Marte with a hit by pitch to load the bases for 1B Jeff Clement, who came through with a two-run base knock to bring home d'Arnaud and Marte and extend the Indians advantage to 3-0. 3B Yamaico Navarro then laid down a perfect bunt single to re-load the bases where, after a strikeout, C Jose Morales would step to the plate and line a base hit to left to plate Fox.

2B Brian Friday then drew a bases load walk to plate another Tribe score and force Maine from the game. Former Indians hurler Nelson Figueroa would take over for Maine, and after inducing a pop out from Gorkys Hernandez, would surrender a walk to d'Arnaud, his second of the inning, to force in another run and give Indianapolis a commanding 6-0 lead.

The Yankees would, however, chip away at the Indians advantage with a single score in the second and two more in the third. 3B Brandon Laird doubled home C Francisco Cervelli for Scranton's first score in the top of the second, before DH Jack Cust launched a mammoth two-run home run in the third to cut the Tribe's lead to 6-3.

However, the Indianapolis pitching staff would hunker down from there on in as starter Rick VandenHurk along with relievers Kris Johnson and Duke Welker held the Yankees to just two hits after the third inning.

VandenHurk (5.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO) fought through early trouble to earn the win and improve to 6-0 on the season for the Tribe. With the victory the Netherlands native matches fellow starter Rudy Owens for the team-lead in wins and holds a 2.27 ERA with 36 strikeouts and just 13 walks over 43.2 innings pitched for the Indians this season.

Following VandenHurk, Tribe reliever Kris Johnson (3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 SO) turned in his best performance of the season, allowing just a walk and striking out four over three shutout innings to earn his first hold as a member of the Indians. Finally, RHP Duke Welker (1.0 IP, 2 BB) would work around two final frame walks to finish off the victory for the Tribe.

The Indians offense would also tack on two insurance runs with solo bombs off the bat of Marte and Boggs. Marte first launched a tape measure shot to straight away center field in the bottom of the sixth, before Boggs ripped a pitch over the right fence in the bottom of the seventh to give the game its final 8-3 score.

Scranton starter John Maine (0.1 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO) suffered the loss to fall to 1-2 on the season after only recording one out in the Indians first-frame offensive outburst. Following Maine, Figueroa (4.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 3 SO) tossed 4.2 scoreless frames of relief despite walking four Tribe batters.

With the victory the Indians now own the best record in the International League by 1.5 games and have put together the second-longest winning streak during the Victory Field era with seven consecutive wins. The Tribe and Yankees will continue their series on Sunday afternoon at 1:15 p.m. with LHP Jeff Locke expected to take the mound for Indianapolis and RHP Adam Warren scheduled to start for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

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 12:55 p.m.

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