On Friday night, the Indianapolis Indians pulled out a 6-5 victory over the Pawtucket Red Sox by the skin of their teeth or rather with a walk off, RBI single by Chris McGuiness.
While McGuiness had the winning RBI, Jeff Locke was the star of the game for the Tribe. He pitched seven innings of scoreless baseball and gave up only one hit. He left the game when the Indians were up 3-0 after he had thrown 100 pitches and it seemed as if he would earn his second win of the season.
But the Tribe’s struggling bullpen had other ideas. Phil Irwin, Andy Oliver and Josh Kinney combined to give up five runs in the eighth inning.
The Indians’ first three runs came in the third and fifth innings. In the third, Chris Dickerson extended his hitting streak to a team-high 14 games with a two-run homer. In the fifth inning, Gregory Polanco had an RBI single.
Chase d’Arnaud pinch hit for Jaff Decker to start off the bottom of the ninth and he immediately ripped a triple to left centerfield. He came around to score on a Dickerson single. Polanco singled in the tying run and then scored the winning run on the 2-out single by McGuiness.
Throughout most of the week, Indianapolis has been graced with rain storms, but the Indians were able to get in all of their games with only one – Tuesday night – being halted early because of the weather.
Wednesday and Thursday were both day games that the Tribe split winning 3-1 and losing 0-4, respectively.
Casey Sadler and Jake Brigham combined for a two-hitter on Wednesday, while starter Adam Wilk struggled through five innings on Thursday.
The Tribe heads on the road Saturday for an eight games in nine days. They spend four days playing the Gwinnett Braves and four days playing the Charlotte Knights. The Indians’ are back in town for Memorial Day when they will wear camouflage jerseys.
Saturday night’s starting pitcher has yet to be determined, but game time is 7:05 p.m. The Braves are 0.5 game behind the first place Durham Bulls in the International League South. Since dropping out of first place for one day, the Indians now lead the Columbus Clippers by 3.5 games in the International League West.