After losing eight of ten games going into Tuesday night's game, the Indianapolis Indians found themselves losing more and more ground to the wild card-leading Louisville Bats. After back to back wins Tuesday (10-6) and Wednesday (7-4) over the Norfolk Tides, the Indians have gotten their record over .500 again at 60-59.
In Tuesday's game Joe Martinez (1-0) picked up his first win in an Indians uniform, pitching 5.0 innings, giving up four earned runs on eight hits. Justin Thomas relieved Martinez for two innings, giving up zero runs on two hits. Brian Bass finished off the Tides with two innings of two hit baseball. He did give up one earned run.
At the plate John Bowker was the star again. He went 3-3 with three RBI and hit his first home run in an Indians uniform. The trade that brought Bowker and Martinez to the Pirates organization is off to a great start.
Mitch Jones, who came over in a trade with the Atlanta Braves, went 2-5 with three RBI. Alex Presley and Brandon Moss each had two hits for the Indians. Overall the Indians scored ten runs on 12 hits.
In Wednesday's matinee win, Brandon Moss hit his 20th home run of the season. A career high, and the highest total by an Indians player since 2005. He is now second in the entire International League with 81 RBI.
Every Indians' position player had at least one hit, with Aki Iwamura collecting two hits on the day. Alex Presley continued to swing a hot bat with a double and three RBI.
The Indians jumped out to a 5-1 lead thanks to a four run third inning. In that inning alone, Moss hit his home run, while Presley and Iwamura doubled.
Brian Burres improved to 5-4 on the season with six solid innings of work. He gave up three earned runs on six hits.
Corey Hamman gave up one earned run on one hit in 1.2 innings. Jean Machi gave up two hits in 1.1 innings of relief. He did not give up a run, though, while picking up his 16th save of the season.
The Indians will try to win the series outright in Thursday's series finale at 7 PM. Tickets can be purchased here.
Read more about Indianapolis sports at Pat Lovell's site.
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