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Indians Make Knights Knuckle Under

Photo: Ty Taubenheim, Tom Gorzelanny, and Adam Boeve in the dugout

Indianapolis Indians 8,
Charlotte Knights 3

boxscore

The Indianapolis Indians did not let Charlotte Knights’ knuckleball-throwing starter Charlie Haeger overwhelm them in tonight’s game at Victory Field. Instead, the Indinas collected two early runs, and then sealed the deal with a 6-run 7th inning for their third straight win, and a 3-game-to-1 series win against the Knights. It has been two months since the Indians won three games in a row.

The game had a scary moment in the top of the first inning. Starting pitcher Jimmy Barthmaier (photo) gave up a single up the middle to Knights’ lead-off man CF Jason Bourgeois, then got the next two batters to ground out. Then LF Chris Getz hit a fireball liner right back at Barthmaier, hitting his pitching hand, or maybe his wrist (photo at the top). Barthmaier managed to pick up the ball to throw it to first base, but the throw was wide and not in time, and Bourgeois scored. Manager Trent Jewett and trainer Jose Ministral immediately tended to Barthmaier, and he was very quickly removed from the game. By the end of the game, there had been no further word from the Indians’ clubhouse as to where exactly the ball had hit Barthmaier or the severity of the injury.

(AM Edit: The ball hit his wrist, and Barthmaier is due to have x-rays this morning.)

Mike Thompson (photo) was called in to the game, and given as much time as he needed to warm up. Thompson ended the first inning by getting a ground out to third base, with Tribe 3B Neil Walker making a superb move to his right to snag the ball moving along the foul line, whirl, and fire across to first base for the out.

Charlotte scored again in the 2nd inning. RF Nicholas Blasi led off with a double ricocheting off the left field scoreboard. He moved to third base on a sacrifice bunt by 3B Javier Colina, and he scored on a grounder to shortstop by C Paul Phillips.

Photo: Andrew McCutchen steals second base

The Indians had an interesting time with Charlie Haeger’s knuckleballs. There were a lot of oddly popped up balls, both fair and foul. There were not a lot of ground outs. There were a few pitches that went wild, though Paul Phillips was able to corral many of them. 2B Luis Ordaz had the most success against Haeger, as he reached base in each of his four at-bats: three singles and an error. LF Nyjer Morgan, Neil Walker, and DH Josh Wilson had two hits each.

Nyjer Morgan (photo) lined a single into centerfield to begin the bottom of the 1st inning. Neil Walker brought Morgan home by taking the first pitch he saw, which was not a knuckleball, to the left field wall for an RBI double. Walker tagged up and advanced to third base on 1B Steve Pearce’s fly out. Luis Ordaz hit his first single of the night into short left field to score Walker from third base, and the Indians briefly held the lead. After the Knights tied it up at 2-2 in the top of the 2nd inning, the Indians scattered four singles over the next five innings against Haeger.

Photo: Luis Ordaz gets back to first base

Mike Thompson also was limiting the batters he faced. He gave up a lone single in the 3rd inning, and put the side down in order in the 5th. He worked out of a difficult situation in the 4th inning. Javier Colina led off the inning with a smash to the base of the wall in the deepest part of Victory Field, the 418-foot sign in left-center field. With Colina standing on third base, Thompson got Paul Phillips to fly out to right field, too short to allow Colina to tag up. SS Fernando Cortez dribbled a short little bouncer up the first base line, where 1B Steve Pearce pounced on it, looked threateningly at Colina as he straddled the foul line, then tagged Cortez as he ran up the baseline. Jason Bourgeois grounded to shortstop to end the inning, with Colina still on third base, dismayed.

Photo: Josh Wilson steals second base

The Knights took the lead in the 6th inning. 1B Royce Huffman lined a single into center field to begin the rally. Nicholas Blasi grounded to third base, where Neil Walker scooped the ball and started what could have been a double play. They got Huffman at second base, but he upended 2B Luis Ordaz as he slid in, and the throw on to first base was not in time. Having Blasi on first base bothered Thompson, who tried to pick Blasi off before he even made a pitch to the next batter, Colina. But the pickoff throw went behind Steve Pearce, hit the wall or the rolled up tarp, and bounded toward the Knights’ bullpen. Blasi raced all the way to third base on the error. Colina then smacked a grounder along the left field foul line and into the corner, scoring Blasi on the RBI double, and the Knights had a 3-2 lead.

The Indians got their revenge in the bottom of the 7th, figuring out what to do with Charlie Haeger and his knuckleball. Josh Wilson led off with a double into left field, and C Carlos Maldonado sacrifice bunted him to third base. Nyjer Morgan scorched a ball into right field, hitting it so hard that by the time 1B Huffman dove for the ball, it was already past him and into right field. Wilson scored on Morgan’s RBI single. Haeger hit CF Andrew McCutchen (photo) on the shoulder with a pitch, bringing Neil Walker to the plate again. This time walker lined a double into center field, scoring both Morgan and McCutchen, and sending Haeger to the showers. Haeger had thrown 123 pitches, 83 for strikes.

Reliever Derek Rodriguez took the mound, and he did not stop the charging Tribe. He walked Steve Pearce on a close 3-2 pitch. Luis Ordaz lifted a high fly ball into right field, but RF Blasi appeared to be having trouble seeing the ball in the twilight, and none of his teammates were near enough to help. The ball went off the end of his glove for a 2-base error, and Walker came in to score. SS Brian Bixler dropped down a sacrifice bunt, hit a little too hard so that it went straight back to the mound. Rodriguez charged, but overran the ball and then fell. Pearce came in to score with head-first diving slide, Ordaz advanced to third base, and Bixler was safe at first. With RF Matt Kata (photo) at the plate, Rodriguez threw a wild pitch that went all the way to the backstop, allowing Ordaz to score easily. Kata struck out and Maldonado flied out to end the inning.

Marino Salas came on to pitch the 7th inning for the Tribe. Jason Bourgeois reached base when Brian Bixler bobbled a grounder at shortstop, and he advanced to second base on a single by 2B Danny Richar. Salas struck out former Indy Indian Brad Eldred, and got a second out when LF Chris Getz grounded to 1B Steve Pearce, who went to his right to get to the ball, then fired to second base for the force out. Salas smoked strike three past Royce Huffman to end the inning and the threat. He was the pitcher of record when the Indians erupted in the bottom of the inning, and so he earned his third win of the season.

Franklyn German pitched the final two innings for the Indians. He pitched two perfect innings, striking out three batters, including blowing a called strike three past Richar for the final out.

Indians’ Hitting Gems of the Game: Neil Walker’s (photo) two doubles for three RBI. In the post-game interview, Walker talked about facing the knuckleballer Haeger: “I definitely thought that he was going to throw the knuckleball. He had been doing well with it all night, and nobody really squared it up. I was fortunate enough that he didn’t throw me the knuckleball, but it was the fastball right over the plate.” The switch-hitting Walker usually bats lefty against right-handed pitchers, but today he chose to bat right-handed against Haeger. “It’s my natural side, and sometimes you feel better from one side or the other. I felt like I had the best chance. So, both myself and Matt Kata felt that we had the best chance of hitting him right-handed, so that was our mental approach.”

Indians’ Defensive Gem of the Game: The entire bottom of the 4th inning, when Mike Thompson, with the help of Matt Kata, Steve Pearce, and Brian Bixler, stranded Javier Colina on third base after his triple.

NOTES:

Neil Walker’s (photo) work at third base and his success at the plate this week has not gone unnoticed, as Jenifer Langosh reports.

On Saturday July 26th, the Indians are joining IUPUI (Indiana University/Purdue University at Indianapolis) in their Backpack Attack. This community outreach drive collects school supplies for Indianapolis area kids to help them be ready for school. The usual kinds of things are needed: pencils, crayons, colored pencils, safety scissors, rulers, etc. (Interesting to note that alarm clocks are also on the list.) Bring donation items to the game on Saturday!

Go Tribe!

This entry was posted on Friday, July 25th, 2008 at 12:12 am and is filed under Luis Ordaz, Brian Bixler, Matt Kata, Jimmy Barthmaier, Mike Thompson, Marino Salas, Steve Pearce, Nyjer Morgan, Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects, AAA - Indianapolis Indians, Andrew McCutchen, Neil Walker, Carlos Maldonado, Pittsburgh Pirates Minor-League Affiliates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.