On Thursday night, the Indianapolis Indians hosted the Columbus Clippers for the first two games of what will eventually be 10 straight games played against each other. The first six games will occur in Indianapolis – a four day series featuring two doubleheaders (Thursday and Saturday) to make up games missed due to inclement weather, otherwise known as snow, in April.

For the first game, Nick Kingham was on the mound for his sixth start for the Indians and looking for his third win. It has become an expectation that when Kingham is on the mound the fans in attendance will see a stellar pitching performance (with the exception of his last start against the Louisville Bats).

On Thursday night, that meant that Kingham pitched five stellar innings, before a hiccup in the sixth inning and pitching out of a bases loaded jam. During his six inning out, he gave no runs on two hits while striking out four and walking one.

Kingham flirted with a perfect game in the shortened seven inning game. He got the first 17 batters he faced out before giving up back-to-back hits with two outs in the sixth.

Thanks to a solid performance by Kingham followed by another save for Andy Oliver the second game of the game ended one hour and 57 minutes after it started and the second game of the doubleheader was scheduled to start at 8:35 p.m.

The Tribe offense was held mostly silent as Kingham dueled with Clippers’ starter Danny Salazar – who gave up one run on two hits. The Indians lone run came in the bottom of the sixth inning when an intentional walk of Chris McGuiness loaded the bases and two batters later, Mel Rojas battled to draw a walk and sending the only Indians run home.

With a very short transition between games, enough to allow the Indians to change their jerseys – they went from their red home jerseys for game one to their white home jerseys for game two – as well as allowing the grounds crew to repaint the lines on the field, the players were back out for game two.

Vin Mazzaro was the lucky man who got to follow Kingham’s start with a start of his own in Game 2. This was his first ever start in the International League and his first start since May 2012. He struggled in the first inning – giving up two runs on four hits – but then got in a groove and proceeded to not allow a base runner in the second, third and fourth innings before exiting the game. In his four inning outing, he had the two runs on four hits with one walk and five strikeouts.

When Mazzaro left the game, the Tribe had a 6-2 lead. The Tribe scored one run in the bottom of the first, but really burst the game open in the third. The runs were scored on RBI singles by Robert Andino, Brent Morel and McGuiness, as well as a Rojas sacrifice fly. The Indians added an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth off the bat of Rojas, who hit his second home run of the season.

In the sixth inning, the Indians decided to run away with the game – scoring seven runs. Here’s the batter-by-batter breakdown of all the scoring action:

• Blake Davis singles.
• Chase d’Arnaud singles. Davis advances to second.
• Andino walks. Davis advances to third. d’Arnaud advances to second.
• Matt Curry singles. Davis scores. d’Arnaud advances to third. Andino advances to second.
• Morel doubles. d’Arnaud scores. Andino scores. Curry advances to third.
• McGuiness singles. Curry scores. Morel advances to third.
• Tony Sanchez homers. Morel scores. McGuiness scores.
• Rojas strikes out for the first out of the inning.
• Nevin Ashley grounds out for the second out of the inning.
• Davis walks.
• d’Arnaud singles. Davis advances to second.
• Andino grounds out to end the inning.

In the end, the Tribe was victorious by a score of 14-2. They also outhit the Clippers 16-5. John Holdzkom relieved Mazzaro to start the fifth and pitched three solid innings. He gave up no runs and one hit, while walking one batter and striking out five on the way to earning his second win.

Indians’ Player of the Game – Game 1:

Nick Kingham

Since joining the Tribe in early June, Kingham has been on top of the game and in control on the mound. He had one rough start on July 5 where he gave up six runs on 10 hits, but he redeemed himself on Thursday night when he pitched six innings and gave up no runs on two hits, as is his typical style. He earned his third win, to put his record at 3-1 with the Indians.

Indians’ Player of the Game – Game 2:

Chase d’Arnaud

After going 1-for-3 with a strikeout in the first game of the day, d’Arnaud was one of many Indians players who had a large impact on the final score in Game 2. The Indians’ center fielder was 3-for-4 at the plate, scoring three runs with one walk in the Tribe’s 14-2 victory.

 

Game 1 Final Box Score:

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7		R	H	E
Clippers	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	2	0
Indians	0	0	0	0	0	7	X		1	2	0

Winning Pitcher: Kingham (3-1, 1.62)
Losing Pitcher: Salazar (3-6, 4.50)
Save: Oliver (11)

Game 2 Final Box Score:

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7		R	H	E
Clippers	2	0	0	0	0	0	0		2	5	1
Indians	1	0	5	0	0	7	X		14	16	0

Winning Pitcher: Holdzkom (2-0, 0.00)
Losing Pitcher: Josh Outman (0-1, 7.11)

Author’s Note:
This content was originally published on the Indiana Sports Report website.