Indians Fall in Second-Half Opener

INDIANAPOLIS – Antwone Kelly could not go the distance as the Indianapolis Indians burned through six pitchers in a 7-2 loss to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders on Tuesday night at Victory Field. Ronny Simon extended his on-base streak to 14 games with two hits and a walk.

Garrett Martin opened the scoring with a two-run dinger to put Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (1-0, 31-45) up, 2-0. Martin’s glove protected their lead in the bottom of the frame, stealing a bases-loaded hit from Jhostynxon Garcia with a spectacular diving catch in center field to end the inning.

The velocity was there for Kelly (L, 3-5), who fired a 101.3 MPH fastball on the third pitch of the game to match the highest mark recorded in his career. But the RailRiders jumped on Kelly early, and Indianapolis (0-1, 31-45) gave the ball to Michael Walsh after 3.0 innings. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre tallied three runs in the fourth inning off two hits, two hit batters, one walk and one error.

The Indians followed with a similar walk recipe to cook up a pair of runs in the next frame. They strung together four walks, one hit and a sac fly to make it a 5-2 ball game.

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre tacked on two more insurance runs in the eighth inning for a final score of 7-2. Carson Coleman (W, 1-0) threw 1.1 perfect innings and earned the win.

Indianapolis looks to bounce back behind Khristian Curtis (2-0, 3.27), who will face Adam Kloffenstein (2-5, 5.31) for the RailRiders. First pitch is scheduled for 1:35 PM on Wednesday afternoon.