INDIANAPOLIS - A pair of two-out walks led to a Cliff Pennington three-run homer in the fourth inning, the first of three long balls hit by the RailRiders, and a late rally by the Indians came up short in a 7-4 loss on Thursday. Will Craig belted his 10th home
INDIANAPOLIS - A pair of two-out walks led to a Cliff Pennington three-run homer in the fourth inning, the first of three long balls hit by the RailRiders, and a late rally by the Indians came up short in a 7-4 loss on Thursday. Will Craig belted his 10th home run of the season in the defeat.
Scranton/WB (19-16) sent nine batters to the plate in the fourth inning, turning a 1-1 ballgame into a 5-1 advantage. Tribe starter Dario Agrazal retired the first two men he faced in the frame before walks to Kyle Higashioka and Brad Miller teed up Pennington's fourth home run of the year. Gosuke Katoh followed Pennington's dinger with a double and later scored on a single by Billy Burns to chase Agrazal.
Former Indian Drew Hutchison (W, 3-2) cruised through 6.0 innings of work, surrendering one unearned run on five hits and one walk with nine strikeouts. His offense tacked on two more runs in the fifth thanks to back-to-back solo homers by Higashioka and Miller off Indians reliever Luis Escobar.
Agrazal (L, 2-1) walked three batters for just the seventh time in 103 career starts. He was charged with five earned runs on five hits with three strikeouts in 3.2 innings pitched.
Trey Amburgey laced a leadoff triple for Scranton/WB in the first and touched home on a Ryan McBroom groundout. Indianapolis (20-17) answered with a run of its own in the bottom half on three singles, the last trickling down the third base line off the bat of Kevin Kramer to even the score.
Craig's home run came with two away in the eighth. He then worked a bases-loaded walk in the ninth to make it 7-4, but Kramer struck out swinging against Cale Coshow (S, 2) with the bases loaded to end the game.
The Tribe left 10 runners on base and went 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
The Indians continue their homestand on Friday night at 7:15 p.m. ET against Norfolk. Right-hander Eduardo Vera (1-3, 5.35) will face southpaw Keegan Akin (1-1, 4.27).
