Kingham Shoves as Indians Bury Bats Late

INDIANAPOLIS -Nick Kingham fell one out shy of his second nine-inning complete game in three starts and instead settled for an 8.2-inning gem as the Indianapolis Indians rolled to a 6-1 win over the Louisville Bats on Monday night at Victory Field. Jacob Stallings and Erich Weiss launched back-to-back homers in the triumph.

Indianapolis (70-57) rode Kingham from the get-go and used the first of two Danny Ortiz run-scoring doubles to grab a 1-0 lead through four innings.
Kingham needed just 46 pitches to get through the first four frames thanks to a five-pitch fourth. After the 25-year-old pitched around a two-out walk in the fifth, he induced inning-ending double plays in the sixth and seventh to keep the Bats at bay.
The Las Vegas native continued his dominance through the eighth with a 12-pitch inning, but with two down in the ninth, he surrendered an RBI double to Darnell Sweeney, ultimately ending his night at 110 pitches.
Angel Sánchez entered and struck out Brandon Dixon to seal Indy's 40th home win of 2017.
The score remained 1-0 until the seventh when Stallings and Weiss clubbed consecutive solo shots off Louisville (50-77) starter Tyler Mahle to make it 3-0. Then in the eighth, Indy doubled its lead with three more runs, one coming on Ortiz's second double of the night and two more racing home on a two-bagger by Stallings.
Kingham (8-6) improved to 5-0 with a 1.19 ERA (6 ER in 45.1 IP) over his last six starts. Had he finished the ninth, he would've become the second Tribe pitcher in the Victory Field era (since 1996) to notch two nine-inning complete games in the same season. Horacio Estrada accomplished the feat during Indy's championship campaign in 2000.
Mahle (3-4) suffered the loss after yielding three runs on nine hits over seven innings of work.
The Indians and Bats continue their four-game series Tuesday night. Right-hander Tyler Glasnow (8-1, 1.79) will start for Indy, opposite Bats righty Jackson Stephens (7-8, 5.01). First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m.