Priester Shines In Triple-A Debut, Indians Defeat Saints 7-1

INDIANAPOLIS – Quinn Priester dazzled in his Triple-A debut and the Indianapolis Indians went up big with home runs by Blake Sabol and Malcom Nunez to defeat the St. Paul Saints on Wednesday afternoon at Victory Field, 7-1.

Priester (W, 1-0), who was officially added to the Indians (73-70) roster today, spun 5.0 two-hit, shutout innings as his team looked for its third consecutive win against St. Paul (69-74). He fired in 47 of his 71 pitches for strikes and collected six strikeouts, three of which came in a stretch of eight consecutive batters retired to finish his outing.

Meanwhile, the offense plated five runs in the third against Jordan Balazovic (L, 0-7) to put Priester in line for the win. Endy Rodriguez jumpstarted the scoring with a pair of runners on, lining his second double in as many games into right field to plate Jared Oliva and Ji-Hwan Bae. Sabol followed with his fifth Triple-A home run to extend the lead to 4-0 without an out being recorded. Two batters later, Malcom Nunez – who lined a single 112 MPH off the bat in his first Triple-A plate appearance – sent a fly ball over the left-field wall for his first home run at the level.

Rodriguez continued his dominance in Triple-a over his first two games, going 3-for-4 with a season-high tying four RBI after lining a two-run single to extend Indy’s lead to 7-0 in the sixth. He now has five hits, two of which were doubles, in seven total Triple-A at-bats.

The Saints scored their only run via a Ryan Jeffers solo home run to straightaway center in the top of the eighth.

Jared Oliva joined Rodriguez with three hits, all singles. Of six total season-high three-hit games this season for the outfielder, three have come in the month of September.

The Indians will look to take a 4-0 lead in the series against St. Paul tomorrow night at 7:05 PM ET at Victory Field. Taking the mound for Indianapolis will be RHP Jerad Eickhoff (6-7, 5.06) against RHP Randy Dobnak (1-1, 6.39).