Indians release
8/8/2009
Third baseman Neil Walker provided the game-winning solo home run in the seventh behind dominant pitching from starter Eric Hacker as the Indianapolis Indians out dueled the Charlotte Knights 2-1 in front of a crowd of 10,836 at Victory Field on Saturday Night.
With the win the Indians improve to 56-57 on the season and 29-26 at home, while the Knights drop to 51-62 overall and 21-35 on the road with the loss. With the victory Indianapolis now leads the current set 3-0 looking for their first sweep of the season, while they also lead the season series 5-2 with the final game between the two teams this season set to take place tomorrow.
In a tie game with two outs in the seventh, Walker came through in the clutch as he smashed his 11th long ball of the season to give the Indians a 2-1 lead. With the game-winning round-tripper the third baseman extended his current hitting streak to eight games in which he as batted .457 (16-for-35) with seven runs, five doubles, three home runs and 16 RBI.
The switch-hitting slugger has also recorded an RBI in seven of his last eight contests including five multi-RBI performances and with the dinger collected his eighth extra-base hit in his last eight contests. Walker’s blast was the Tribe’s second run of the game as the Indians went down 1-0 early, but fought back with a run in the sixth and the seventh.
Charlotte’s lone run came early in the contest as they struck first with a run in the third. The Knight’s one score would come on a sacrifice fly by SS Brent Lillibridge to center field that scored CF Miguel Negron. Negron came plateward after he reached first on a fielder’s choice then moved to second on a single and stole third to place himself in position for the sac fly.
Negron’s run would be the only blemish against the Indians as Hacker (7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 SO) buckled down and was lights out for the remainder of his outing. The right hander allowed just five hits and two walks, while striking out seven to move to 5-4 on the season.
Hacker has been sensational in his five starts since the All-Star break as he has now allowed only six earned runs over 33.0 innings of work for a 1.64 ERA as well as 21 strikeouts over that span. The dominant pitching would continue upon his exit as right handers Juan Mateo (1.0 IP) and Jeremy Powell (1.0 IP, 1 SO) followed with excellent work out of the bullpen.
Mateo picked up his fourth hold of the season after he replaced Hacker with a perfect eighth, while Powell closed the door on the Knights for his first save of his professional career with a perfect ninth inning in which he struck out one batter.
After falling behind early and being held to just two hits in the first five innings the Indians’ offense was able to bounce back with a run in the sixth and seventh. Charlotte starter Jack Egbert (6.2 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 SO) matched Hacker with an impressive early performance giving up seven hits and striking out six in 6.2 innings of work.
Egbert would however get pinned with the loss as he was responsible for the Tribe’s back-to-back scoring frames. Before Walker launched the game-winning home run in the seventh off of the Charlotte starter the Tribe would first tie it up with run in the sixth.
CF Chris Barnwell and SS Argenis Diaz led off the frame with back-to-back singles to place runners on first and second with no outs. The Indians then hit into a 2-5-3 double play which left Diaz as the lone runner on second now with two-outs.
Diaz (2-for-3, 1 R), who recorded the only multi-hit performance for either team, still managed to come plateward as RF Jose Tabata came through in the clutch with an RBI single to right-center field. The base knock not only tied the game at one but also extended Tabata’s hitting streak to five games.
Indianapolis will wrap up their four-game series with Charlotte on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. RHP Brad Lincoln is scheduled to start for the Indians, while RHP Daniel Hudson is expected to get the nod for the Knights.
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