IL1 Indianapolis Indians

Toledo Trounces Tribe 11-5

Published on August 7, 2011 under International League (IL1)
Indianapolis Indians News Release


INDIANAPOLIS -- Toledo's seven through nine hitters in the batting order, right fielder Clete Thomas, short stop Argenis Diaz and catcher Max St Pierre combined to drive in nine of the Mud Hens' 11 runs, while five Hens hitters recorded a multi-hit game in their 11-5 defeat of the Indianapolis Indians on Sunday afternoon at Victory Field.

With the loss, Indianapolis fell to 60-56 on the year, while the victory improves Toledo's record to 54-62. Toledo's triumph also evened the series at 2-2, while giving the Mud Hens an 8-7 advantage on the season. With a crowd of 8,300 on hand, the Indians have now averaged over 10,000 fans per game in their last 25 contests at Victory Field.

Toledo wasted no time getting on the scoreboard, plating a score in the opening frame. Former Indians player Jeff Salazar began the rally with a free pass and then took second on a wild pitch, before scoring on LF Timo Perez's single to right to give the Mud Hens the 1-0 lead.

A trio of Toledo tallies then came across in the subsequent frame to make it 4-0. 3B Brandon Inge led off the inning with a base hit and advanced to second on Ben Guez's bunt single, before RF Clete Thomas brought both Inge and Guez home with a two-run double left. Thomas would come across later in the frame when he scored on a sacrifice fly by C Max St. Pierre to increase the margin to four.

Indianapolis would get two of those scores back in their half of the second. DH Jeff Clement started the inning with a walk, before consecutive singles from 3B Josh Harrison and C Eric Fryer loaded the bases for CF Gorkys Hernandez. The right-handed speedster delivered with a two-run base knock up the middle to send in Clement and Harrison and narrow the deficit to two.

The Mud Hens however, struck back with two more runs in the fourth frame to once again make it a four-run game. Thomas led off with a single before scoring when St Pierre lifted his third home run of the season to left to push Toledo ahead 6-2.

Indianapolis and Toledo then each traded a tally, with Clement collecting his second base hit of the contest in the fifth, before advancing to second on a wild pitch and subsequently scoring on an RBI double from Harrison. The Mud Hens got their score in the sixth when 2B Danny Worth singled, took second on a steal and third on a throwing error, before coming across on a sacrifice fly from Salazar to make it 7-3

The Tribe however, decreased the difference to two in their half of the sixth frame . 2B Jordy Mercer and All-Star 1B Matt Hague each singled and advanced to second and third on a groundout, before coming plateward when Harrison reached on a Mud Hens' miscue.

Toledo would then break the game wide open in the seventh with a four-run frame. After Strieby began the frame with a double and Inge walked, Guez singled to center to load the bases for Thomas, who drew a walk to bring home Strieby. Diaz followed by plating Inge and Guez with a bloop single to right, before St. Pierre capped the scoring at 11-5 by driving in his fourth run with a sacrifice fly.

Guez (3-for-5, 2 R, 1 2B) led all hitters with three base knocks, while Worth (2-for-6, 1 R), Strieby (2-for-4, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 BB), Inge (2-for-3, 2 R, 2 BB) and Thomas (2-for-4, 3 R, 1 2B, 1 BB, 3 RBI) all collected two hits as well for the Mud Hens. Clement (2-for-4, 2 R, 1 BB) for the second straight contest recorded a multi-hit game, while Hague (2-for-5, 1 R) and Harrison (2-for-5, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI) also accumulated multiple base knocks.

Indians starter Garrett Olson (4.1 IP, 10 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 2 SO) suffered his first loss of the season in 14 starts after surrendering six earned runs on ten hits in his 4.1 innings, while reliever Justin Thomas (2.0 IP, 1 BB, 1 SO) fired two hitless frames of relief for the Tribe.

Mud Hens LHP Andy Oliver (5.2 IP, 11 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 5 BB, 6 SO) earned his third win in as many starts against Indianapolis this year after allowing three earned runs on 11 hits in 5.2 frames, while RHP Ryan Perry (3.1 IP, 2 H, 3 SO) notched his seventh save of the season after giving up just two hits in the final 3.1 innings.

The Indians and Mud Hens will meet again in Toledo for a two-game set at Fifth Third Field beginning Monday night at 7:00 p.m. Toledo is expected to send RHP Thad Weber to the mound, while RHP Sean Gallagher is scheduled to oppose Weber for Indianapolis.

The contest will be carried on WNDE 1260 AM, WNDE.com and via iheartradio, a mobile application for iPhone, Blackberry and Android phones, with Scott McCauley on the call. The pre-game show begins at 6:40 p.m.

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Post-game quotes -- DH Jeff Clement

(on back-to-back multi-hit games after his long DL stint) "I'm trying to get back into the swing of things as quickly as possible. I had a 10-11 month break so that's a long time to not swing a bat. So I'm trying to learn quickly and I'm getting a lot of reps in with our hitting coach, Jeff Branson, which has been great. That's been the biggest reason why I've been able to come back with some early success."

(on Toledo's 11-run outburst) "That's baseball. There's a lot of peaks and valleys. Sometimes the pitching will carry you and sometimes you'll get in shootouts. That's just the way it is. It's such a long season that you don't really think too much about that. That's just the way the game is played."

(on the importance of the upcoming 8-game road trip to gain ground in the Wild Card race) "It's really important. We're right in the hunt. We've just got to put together some quality games and see what happens."

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International League Stories from August 7, 2011


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