Indians Emerge Victorious in Back-and-Forth Battle

INDIANAPOLIS – The Indianapolis Indians snatched a comeback victory from the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, 8-6, in a contest that saw four lead changes on Wednesday afternoon at Victory Field.

RailRiders’ (1-1, 38-38) Garrett Martin started the scoring for the second day in a row, shooting an RBI double off the left field wall.

Derek Diamond opened the game for the Indians (1-1, 32-45) on the mound, followed by Khristian Curtis in the second inning. But Curtis, making his third career Triple-A outing, exited far earlier than expected after being struck by a line drive by the second batter he faced. Thomas Harrington took over for Curtis, but faced the same luck one inning later and was also removed from the game.

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre tacked on another run in the second inning, but a throwing error from the RailRiders second baseman Cole Gabrielson allowed Indianapolis to plate two and tie the game, 2-2.

From there, the two clubs played tug of war for the lead. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre snatched it back with an RBI single in the third, but Nick Cimillo grabbed a 5-3 Indianapolis lead in the bottom of the inning with a 456-foot three-run blast. Martin pushed the RailRiders ahead again, 6-5, in the fourth with a three-run dinger of his own.

Indianapolis pulled away for good in the sixth inning. Keiner Delgado knotted the contest up, 6-6, with an RBI single off Rafael Montero (L, 0-4). Three batters later, the RailRiders’ fifth error of the game allowed two Indians runners to score and take an 8-6 lead.

Beau Burrows (W, 3-1) quieted down the chaos with 3.0 scoreless innings for Indianapolis and Hunter Stratton (S, 2) pitched a perfect ninth inning for the save.

The two teams meet again on Thursday night at 7:05 PM. RHP Dom Hamel (2-8, 7.23) will take the mound for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre while Indianapolis has not yet named a starting pitcher at this time.