INDIANAPOLIS - Josh D. Smith limited the Indians to one unearned run over 5.0 innings and Indiana University product Sam Travis belted a home run to carry the Pawtucket Red Sox past Indianapolis on Friday night, 3-2. Despite the loss, the Indians maintained their 4.0-game lead over Columbus in the
INDIANAPOLIS - Josh D. Smith limited the Indians to one unearned run over 5.0 innings and Indiana University product Sam Travis belted a home run to carry the Pawtucket Red Sox past Indianapolis on Friday night, 3-2. Despite the loss, the Indians maintained their 4.0-game lead over Columbus in the International League West Division.
The Indians (65-52), who never trailed in their three-game sweep over Lehigh Valley, never led in the series opener against Pawtucket (54-61). The visitors were on the scoreboard three batters into the first thanks to a double by Tzu-Wei Lin and singles off the bats of Tony Renda and Rusney Castillo, the latter trickling down the third-base line before clipping the bag to make it 1-0. Two batters later, Travis drove a sacrifice fly to center to bring home Renda.
Indy left two runners on in both the second and fourth frames before breaking the seal in the fifth against Smith. Eric Wood reached second on a bloop double to right and later scored on a José Osuna two-out single to left.
Travis' dinger off Montana DuRapau opened the eighth to push Pawtucket's lead back to two at 3-1. His seventh blast of the year proved to be an important insurance run, as the Tribe nearly completed a comeback in the bottom of the ninth.
Pablo Reyes and Kevin Newman collected singles off Bobby Poyner (S, 5) to start the rally. Jason Martin then sacrificed them an additional 90 feet to bring the potential winning run to the plate in Jose Osuna. He lofted a deep sac fly to right to pull Indy within one, but Jacob Stallings flew out to center on the next pitch to end the game.
Brandon Waddell (L, 4-7) allowed two earned runs, eight hits and one walk with three punchouts over 5.0 innings of work. Smith (W, 7-5) struck out seven, walked two and scattered five hits to earn the win.
Newman, Kevin Kramer, Max Moroff and Reyes all had two hits apiece in the loss. The Indians left 11 men on base and went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position.
The Indians and PawSox play the second game of their series on Saturday night at 7:05 p.m. EDT. Right-hander J.T. Brubaker (7-3, 3.24), the reigning IL Pitcher of the Week, will face righty Justin Haley (5-7, 3.72).
