Indians Walk Off RailRiders in the Ninth
INDIANAPOLIS – José Urquidy and Brendan Beck stunned both clubs in a late-night pitchers’ duel, but the Indianapolis Indians ran away with the victory after scoring three runs in the ninth inning to defeat the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, 4-3, in walk-off fashion on Saturday night at Victory Field.
INDIANAPOLIS – José Urquidy and Brendan Beck stunned both clubs in a late-night pitchers’ duel, but the Indianapolis Indians ran away with the victory after scoring three runs in the ninth inning to defeat the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, 4-3, in walk-off fashion on Saturday night at Victory Field.
Down by two runs in the bottom of the ninth, Shawn Ross delivered a bases-loaded, two-RBI single to knot the game up, 3-3. Dominic Fletcher, whose bat has not cooled off all of June, singled to left field to load the bases once again, setting the stage for Termarr Johnson. The 22-year-old drew the walk-off walk to send the RailRiders (3-2, 40-39) home for the night.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre struck first and fast, launching Urquidy’s second pitch out of the park for a 1-0 lead. After the first-inning solo shot, Urquidy did not allow a hit for the rest of his outing. He struck out five and walked two RailRiders. It was Urquidy’s first time this season, across both Indianapolis (2-3, 33-47) and the Pittsburgh Pirates, that he walked more than one batter in a game.
Brendan Beck went a bit further than Urquidy and pumped through 7.0 innings, but gave up four more hits than his opposition. The Indians finally got to Beck in his last frame and tied the contest up at one run apiece after stringing together two singles, a stolen base and a sacrifice fly in the seventh inning.
After both starting pitchers had passed the baton to the bullpen, Marco Luciano broke the tie game with a 402-foot two-run home run off Jaden Woods in the eighth inning.
Beau Burrows (W, 4-1) threw a perfect ninth inning to earn the win. Eric Reyzelman (L, 0-1) took the loss, allowing four out of the five batters he faced in the ninth inning to reach base. All three ninth-inning runs were charged to Reyzelman.
The Indians aim for a series split on Sunday at 1:35 PM, the final game of the series. Antwone Kelly (3-5, 5.43) is expected to start for Indianapolis against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s Alexander Cornielle (0-1, 5.14).