Kingham, Ngoepe Lead Tribe to Win Over PawSox

INDIANAPOLIS -The Indianapolis Indians snapped a four-game losing streak with a 5-3 triumph over the Pawtucket Red Sox in front of 15,142 fans Saturday night at Victory Field.Nick Kingham fired seven innings of one-run ball, and Gift Ngoepe tripled, homered and made a game-saving play at shortstop to seal the win.

Indianapolis (58-49) extended its division lead to 2.0 games over Columbus by tallying one run in each half-inning from the first through the fifth. Christopher Bostick and Joey Terdoslavich recorded back-to-back doubles to start the first, and Ngoepe's triple followed a two-out single by Jacob Stallings in the second to make it 2-0.
The Indians continued to pour it on against right-hander Hector Velazquez when Danny Ortiz lined a two-out rocket over the right-field wall in the third for his 10^th home run. The long ball gave Ortiz eight straight seasons with double-digit homers.
Pawtucket (54-52) cracked the scoring in the fourth against Kingham. Ryan Court reached on an infield single and took second on an Eric Wood throwing error. Consecutive groundouts eventually plated Court to bring the visitors within two at 3-1.
Ngoepe wasted little time in pushing Indy's lead back to three. He ripped a 2-0, two-out pitch from Velazquez onto the grass berm in left for his third long ball of the year.
Edwin Espinal recorded his first Triple-A hit and RBI with one swing in the fifth. The 23-year-old rolled a single into center to score Terdoslavich who opened the frame with his second double of the night and 17^th on the season.
The PawSox strung together three doubles off Dan Runzler in the eighth to pull back within two. In the ninth, Dovydas Neverauskas earned his 11^th save but walked the tightrope by allowing two walks and a bloop single. With the bases loaded and two down, Ngoepe made a fine defensive play up the middle at short to retire Sam Travis at first by a half step.
Kingham (5-6) scattered eight hits and walked none for a second consecutive outing. He struck out five and has lowered his ERA from 5.16 to 4.42 over his last two starts. Velazquez (6-3) took the loss after allowing a season-high five runs on eight hits in five innings of work.
The Indians conclude their homestand with the finale of their four-game series against Pawtucket Sunday afternoon. The Indians will send right-hander Tyler Glasnow (6-0, 1.46) to the mound, opposite PawSox right-hander Justin Haley. First pitch is set for 1:35 p.m.