INDIANAPOLIS -Dustin Peterson tucked a sharp ground ball past Ke'Bryan Hayes at third base for a go-ahead double in the top of the 10th inning, and the Mud Hens added three insurance runs in the extra frame to best the Indians on Saturday night, 9-6. Erik González and Jason Martin
INDIANAPOLIS -Dustin Peterson tucked a sharp ground ball past Ke'Bryan Hayes at third base for a go-ahead double in the top of the 10th inning, and the Mud Hens added three insurance runs in the extra frame to best the Indians on Saturday night, 9-6. Erik González and Jason Martin had two hits apiece in the defeat, Indy's fifth extra-inning loss of the season.
After turning a double play to send the game to extras, Toledo (39-49) scored four times off Tyler Lyons (L, 4-1) to set up a rubber game in the series finale. Following Peterson's double, Lyons walked Mikie Mahtook on five pitches, uncorked a wild pitch that made it 7-5 and surrendered a run-scoring double to Daz Cameron. Lyons exited the frame with an apparent injury, and two-way player JB Shuck yielded a base hit to Pete Kozma that pushed Indy's deficit to four.
Indianapolis (44-43) didn't go down without a fight. The Tribe loaded the bases in their half of the 10th and pulled within three on a sacrifice fly by Martin. John Schreiber (W, 4-4) struck out Darnell Sweeney and Christian Kelley to seal Indy's fate.
The two International League West foes exchanged leads multiple occasions up until the finish. Toledo struck first on a Ronny Rodríguez two-out, run-scoring triple in the opening frame, but the Indians answered in the bottom half as Ke'Bryan Hayes rocketed an RBI single up the middle.
In the Mud Hens second, three runs came across on two hits and two walks issued by Cam Vieaux. Jacob Robson made it a 2-1 ballgame with a single to center, and Dawel Lugo followed with a two-run double into the right field corner. The Tribe again responded in the home half with two runs of their own, one coming on a Cole Tucker double play to short and the latter on a Gonzalez two-bagger down the left field line.
Indy eventually moved in front 5-4 thanks to single runs in the third and fourth innings. Kevin Kramer scored the tying run on a Martin double to straightaway center, and Kramer then put the Tribe on top with a two-out, bases-loaded walk against Mud Hens starter Kyle Funkhouser. The free pass was the sixth issued by Funkhouser in 3.2 innings pitched and it knocked him out of the game.
Caleb Thielbar took over for Funkhouser and retired all 10 batters he faced in relief to keep the visitors' deficit at one. They finally pulled even against Sean Keselica in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Rodriguez. Keselica surrendered just the one run on five hits in a season-high 4.0 innings of relief.
The Indians and Mud Hens wrap up their five-game series with the first-half finale at 1:35 p.m. ET on Sunday. Alex McRae (5-5, 4.90) is slated to start for Indy against Beau Burrows (0-3, 4.28).
