Indianapolis continued its astonishing roll after beating Louisville in 14 innings. The Indians are 19-5 in their past 24 games, and are on a six-game winning streak. Bryan Morris, who has typically been the most dependable reliever for the Indians all season long, blew a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the seventh inning that wasted Justin Wilson's chance of earning a victory in another spectacular start.
Wilson pitched six innings of shutout baseball and allowed only one hit and one walk while striking out four. Wilson has been absolutely filthy in his last five starts, and he might be finally finding consistency with his command after struggling with it for most of his career. Although he's always had nasty stuff and struck out a fair number of batters as a starting pitcher, his numbers have improved vastly this year. For the season, his ERA is down to 3.34, but he's been better in his last five starts spanning 30 innings. In those starts, he's allowed a minuscule 12 hits, and in three of those stats, including tonight's, he allowed only one hit. Wilson's also allowed only five runs in those five starts, with eight walks and 31 strikeouts. He's joined Jeff Locke and Rudy Owens as primed for a promotion to Pittsburgh (say that five times fast). Unfortunately, Morris allowed three runs in his only inning of work, thanks to giving up two home runs. This raised Morris' ERA on the season from 2.14 to 2.66, and was the first time he's allowed a run since exactly a month ago on June 2.
The Indians took the lead back in the bottom of the eighth on Tony Sanchez's first home run of his triple-A career and for the entire season. That would be Sanchez's only hit as he went 1-for-7, but it was a big one since the Bats scored again off Jose Diaz in the bottom of the inning to tie and send the game to extra innings. Both bullpens held until Chase d'Arnaud doubled to lead off the 14th inning, Gorkys Hernandez reached on an error and red-hot Starling Marte was intentionally walked. Matt Hague singled as part of his 2-for-5 day with two walks to provide the winning runs.
Tim Wood recorded his 12th save with a scoreless inning, and Kris Johnson's two innings of relief earned him the victory. #Martewatch is going to rival #Parisewatch in Pittsburgh this week, after the budding prospect had another stellar day at the plate going 3-for-6 with a double and a stolen base, his 17th. Also of note, Marte, who usually plays center field for the Indians, manned right while Hernandez (a stellar defender in his own right) slid over to center. Could this be practice for a promotion in the coming days? We shall see.
AA Altoona | Altoona 6 Binghamton Mets 2
The Pirates' top prospect Gerrit Cole bounced back nicely in his first AA start after being struck in the face with a line drive last week, upping his record to 2-1 with the victory. He pitched 5.2 innings, giving up six hits and one walk with five strikeouts. Cole allowed two runs, but only one was earned. The 21-year-old gave Pirates fans and personnel alike a great scare last week but the team has to be pleased with his first performance after the scary scene.
The Curve offense stayed hot, smashing 10 hits and scoring six runs for the team's fifth consecutive win. The usual suspects again led the attack, with Robbie Grossman doubling to lead off the game (although that was his only hit in four at bats) and although he was thrown out on a fielder's choice, it sparked a two-run first inning. Shortstop Brock Holt went 2-for-5 with a solo home run, his second of the season, in the third inning. Holt will almost assuredly be promoted to Indianapolis when any place to play in the infield opens up, as his average rose to .326 and his OPS to .844. Matt Curry and Stefan Welch remained scorching as well, with Curry hitting three singles in five at bats and Welch going 2-for-3 with a walk. Welch's average in AA is up to .444. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi Oi Oi!!!
Ramon Cabrera had Altoona's only other two hits, one of which was a double. Although he was named to the Eastern League All-Star game, Cabrera has struggled to repeat his breakout performance from last year in high-A Bradenton. Cabrera's day raised his numbers on the season to a .241 average, with two home runs, 33 RBIs and a meager .614 OPS
A West Virginia | West Virginia 2 Delmarva Shorebirds 4
The traveling freak show of Alen Hanson and Gregory Polanco were surprisingly held to a lowly 1-for-10 at the plate tonight against Delmarva. This comes after the Dominican Duo ate the Delmarva pitching alive yesterday going 8-for-11 with six extra base hits. The unlikely Hanson was the one that went 0-for-5 with his average dropping to an absolutely pathetic .329 average. Everyone has come to realize that Hanson and Polanco will just turn the page and break out the sticks the next few games anyway. The metaphorical absence of Hanson and Polanco in the offense paved the way for contributions from a few others. Putting together a very nice season so far, Taylor Lewis went 2-for-5 at the plate with his average sitting at .318. Willy Garcia and Chris Lashmet both chipped in going 2-for-4 on the night.
On the bump Robby Rowland gave three earned runs on six hits and three walks while striking out four in five and a third innings. His blemish on the night was when he surrendered a two-run shot to Adam Davis in the sixth. He was pulled from the game right after and was relieved by the Bay of Bengal Tiger; Rinku Singh.
A Bradenton | Bradenton 6 Charlotte Stone Crabs 3
After a pretty rough patch of six shaky starts towards the end of May and all of June, Jameson Taillon turned out what may have been his best professional outing. While he was not his usual self carving up batters for a high strikeout rate, he hurled eight innings for the first time in his career. Taillon held the average Stone Crabs offense scoreless and only allowed two hits through the first seven innings. He was pulled during his eighth inning of work but definitely did not disappoint, that's for sure. He was responsible for two of the runs the Stone Crabs plated in the eighth inning when Quinton Miller came in relief. Unfortunately, Taillon finished the night with a no-decision after throwing an outstanding game on the hill.
On the offensive side of ball, Mel Rojas and Alex Dickerson led the onward charge for the Marauders. Rojas went 2-for-3 and had his Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez PF Flyers all tied up nice and tight tonight slugging two "Trip, Trip, Triples". Dickerson, on the other hand, hit a go-ahead three-run jack in the bottom of the eighth to put the Marauders ahead 6-3. He was the true epitome of the "Sultan of Swing" in that pivotal situation of the game(get used to the famous Dire Straits song being referenced!). Dickerson probably was serenading Taillon to "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You" in the locker room after the game. Think about that one people!
A State College | State College 3 Batavia Muckdogs 5
After shining in his first two professional outings, Clay Holmes came down to earth for the first time in his professional career. The 2011 Ninth-Round pick was "country strong" only allowing four hits and one run in 10 total innings in his first two outings. But tonight against the rather lowly Batavia offense, Holmes struggled mightily by allowing four runs on six hits and walking two. He was removed in the fourth after putting runners on via an error from right fielder Rodarrick Jones, two singles, and a hit batter. The only sign of offense from the Spikes came in the fifth inning when they put a crooked three runs on the board. Consecutive singles from Samuel Gonzalez, Ryan Hornback, Walker Gourley, and Rodarrick Jones with a Yhonathan Barrios walk thrown in there was the lightning rod of offense tonight.