INDIANAPOLIS - The Indians had no answer for Buffalo's high-powered offense, which tallied 15 hits and had 25 baserunners in total, in an 11-3 loss on Thursday night. Nick Franklin tallied two of Indy's eight hits, including his third long ball of the season with two away in the ninth
INDIANAPOLIS - The Indians had no answer for Buffalo's high-powered offense, which tallied 15 hits and had 25 baserunners in total, in an 11-3 loss on Thursday night. Nick Franklin tallied two of Indy's eight hits, including his third long ball of the season with two away in the ninth inning.
Buffalo (30-34) plated its first two runs of the game in the second inning, sending eight batters to the plate. Patrick Kivlehan walked and scored on a Sócrates Brito triple to left, and Reese McGuire recorded an RBI single later in the inning to make it 2-0.
The Bisons added three runs in the sixth to push their lead to five. Jonathan Davis and Andy Burns smacked doubles to deep right ahead of a Roemon Fields run-scoring single through a vacant infield on the left side. After Fields swiped second and third base, Billy McKinney split the right-center gap for another RBI double.
The Indians (35-29) responded with two runs in the bottom of the sixth. Eric Wood put Indy on the scoreboard with a bases-loaded single and another run came in on a throwing error by Fields.
Buffalo continued its offensive onslaught with one run in the seventh and eighth innings before plating four in the ninth off Jake Brentz. Franklin's line-drive homer skipped off the top of the left field wall onto the grass berm to complete the scoring.
Trevor Williams (L, 0-1), making a rehab start for Indianapolis, bookended the first inning with strikeouts of Bo Bichette and Anthony Alford. In the bottom half, Jake Elmore attempted to bunt his way on base but was called out for batter interference for running out of the baseline. Tribe manager Brian Esposito was ejected for arguing the ruling, his first in 1½ seasons as skipper.
Corey Copping (W, 1-0) threw 3.0 shutout innings of relief for the Bisons to earn the win. He surrendered two hits and two walks with three strikeouts.
The Indians begin a three-game weekend series with the Pawtucket Red Sox on Friday night at 7:15 p.m. ET. Eduardo Vera (3-4, 6.14) is slated to start for the Tribe.
