Things could only get worse, right? The Indianapolis Indians dropped another game to the Rochester Red Wings on Friday night to lose their fifth straight game.
It didn’t help that the Indians’ listed starter Brandon Cumpton was scratched just minutes before game time. Adam Wilk took the mound instead and earned the loss as the Red Wings exploded to an 11-4 victory.
The Red Wings scored a run in the first, added another in the fifth, before going on a run to score four in the fifth and then tacking on another in sixth. During this time, the Tribe was no hit, but had three base runners – Blake Davis , Andrew Lambo and Tony Sanchez – due to walks.
It was during the seventh inning that the Indians offense decided to show up. Prior to this inning, they had been scoreless for 16 innings. Lambo started off the inning with the Tribe’s first hit of the game – a single. Brent Morel and Matt Hague hit singles right after to load the bases. The next batter, Sanchez kept the bases loaded when he hit into a fielder’s choice, force out with Lambo being the out at home.
On what should have been a routine double play ball – that would have ended the inning – off the bat of Chris McGuiness led to an error and not one, but two Indians runs to score. Davis batted in a run, after the runners advanced to second and third on a wild pitch by Red Wings starter Mark Hamburger, before Robert Andino struck out to end the inning.
Before the seventh inning, the crowd of 14,268 didn’t have much to cheer about as their team was down 8-0 with no base runners. But just as the Tribe’s offense came alive so did the crowd.
The Tribe added another run in the eighth after Jose Tabata doubled to start the inning. He advanced to third on a wild pitch by Logan Darnell before bend driven in by Lambo to cut the Red Wings’ lead to four.
Andy Oliver in to pitch the ninth struggled as he hit the first batter he faced. That was followed by two straight walks. He got a bases loaded strikeout, but then gave up an RBI single followed by another bases loaded strikeout. The next batter had an RBI single before Oliver walked in the third run of the inning before getting a ground out to end the hurt, but the damage had been done.
The Tribe wasn’t able to add any runs in the ninth and lost their second straight game to Rochester, 11-4. In the last five games, they have been outscored 33 to 10. The Tribe looks to Rafael Perez to start on Saturday night at 7:05 p.m. and turn this streak around.
Indians Player of the Game:
John Holdzkom
The Indians’ reliever came in following a rough performance by starter Adam Wilk and Josh Wall. He pitched 1.1 innings of scoreless ball. The two runners he inherited did not score and he gave up no hits and walked no batters with one strikeout during that time.
Final Box Score:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red Wings | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 11 | 15 | 1 | |
| Indians | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 1 |
Winning Pitcher: Hamburger (3-2, 3.52 ERA)
Losing Pitcher: Wilk (7-12, 4.75 ERA)
Author’s Note:
This content was originally published on the Indiana Sports Report website.
