Sanchez's Three Doubles Not Enough In loss
INDIANAPOLIS - A sold out crowd of 15,066 packed the ballpark to cheer on the Indianapolis Indians (53-43) on Star Wars Night, but the capacity crowd witnessed the Tribe's three-run rally fall 90 feet short in a 5-4 loss to the Columbus Clippers (50-46) on Friday night at Victory Field. The throng of 15,066 marked the Indians' largest home attendance since September 4, 2009.
Starter Adam Wilk gave up five runs on eight hits in seven innings to suffer his eighth loss of the season. The lefty fanned eight, one shy of his career high, but surrendered three of his five RBI with two outs, beginning with a first-inning, run-scoring knock Giovanny Urshela.
The Tribe responded with a one-out single from Robert Andino, who took second on a base hit from Chris McGuiness and scored when Tony Sanchez sent a ground-rule double bouncing over the left field wall to tie the game 1-1. Sanchez finished the game with a career high-tying four hits, going 4-for-4 with three doubles and one RBI.
After Columbus took a 5-1 lead with two runs in both the third and fifth innings, the Tribe began its comeback behind four consecutive singles from McGuiness, Brent Morel, Sanchez and Mel Rojas Jr. in the bottom of the eighth. Rojas would collect his league-leading 12th RBI of the last 11 games by plating McGuiness on a bases-loaded single that chased Clippers starter Gabriel Arias after his 7 1/3 innings.
Arias initially allowed only two runs, but after reliever Benny Suarez inherited a bases-juiced, one-out scenario, Columbus' starter was charged with a third run as Suarez yielded a sac fly to Matt Curry that scored Morel and brought the Tribe within 5-3 after eight.
Josh Kinney then pitched a scoreless ninth before the Indians put the tying run aboard courtesy of a leadoff walk by Dean Anna and one-base hit from Chase d'Arnaud. With runners on the corners and no outs, Andino dribbled an RBI groundout to bring Anna home and move the tying run into scoring position, but after McGuiness singled to advance d'Arnaud to third, the Indians stranded the runner by rolling into a tailor-made, game-ending doubleplay.