Tribe Beats Toledo 4-2 In Series Opener
With the series opening victory the Indians improve to 4-9 on the season and pull even with the Mud Hens, who fall to 4-9 with the loss. The win also improves the Tribe's record to 2-1 against the Mud Hens this season and gives them their first two-game winning streak of 2011 after they earned the victory in the series finale versus Louisville on Monday, April 18.
Wilson (6.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 SO), who is in just his third season of professional baseball after being drafted by the Pirates in 5th round of the 2008 draft, turned in a brilliant outing in just his third start at the Triple-A level as he held Toledo scoreless over six innings to earn the victory and improve to 1-1 on the season. Following Wilson, Tribe lefty Justin Thomas (1.0 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 SO) tossed a scoreless inning of relief to earn his first hold of the season, before fellow Indians reliever Tim Wood (1.1 IP, 2 SO) got the final out in the eighth and pitched a perfect ninth to notch his first save.
Despite collecting just six hits in the contest, the Indians made each one count as five went for extra bases, including four doubles and a solo home run off the bat of DH Andy Marte in the second inning which gave the Indians an early 1-0 lead. The homer for Marte was his second of the season, tying him with C Dusty Brown for the team lead in longballs and pulling him even with Brown and LF Alex Presley with a team best seven RBI.
Presley reached the seven RBI total by collecting two more in Wednesday's win over the Mud Hens, beginning with a clutch sacrifice fly that brought home SS Pedro Ciriaco in the Tribe's two-run sixth. Ciriaco, who broke out of season opening slump with a 3-for-4 effort on Monday, kept things rolling as he plated 2B Chase d'Arnaud with an RBI double in the sixth, before stealing third and trotting home on Presley's sac fly later in the frame.
Presley would then tack on what turned out to be a key insurance run in the top of the eighth when he lined an RBI double to left to bring home CF Corey Wimberly, who reached on a Mud Hens' error and stole second earlier in the inning. Despite no Tribe batter collecting multiple hits all but one reached base at least once, while Presley was the only batter on either side to drive in multiple runs.
The Tribe continued to blaze their way on the basepaths as Wimberly, Ciriaco and 3B Josh Harrison all stole a base to increase the Indians International League best total to 20 steals so far this season. With their swipes both Ciriaco and Harrison tied OF Gorkys Hernandez for the team lead, an individual total which also continues to rank among the top five in the IL.
Toledo would plate their only two runs of the contest in the eighth inning as following a single by RF Andy Dirks and double by 2B Scott Sizemore, DH Timo Perez would roll an RBI groundout to score Dirks and LF Scott Thorman would come through with a clutch two-out single to plate Sizemore. Dirks (2-for-3, 1 R, 1 BB,) and Sizemore (2-for-4, 1 R) led the way offensively for the Mud Hens as they were the only batters on either side to post multi-hit efforts.
Toledo starter Thad Weber (7.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO) suffered the loss to fall to 0-2 on the season despite allowing just three earned runs over seven innings. Mud Hens' reliever Fu-Te Ni (2.0 IP 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 SO) pitched well in relief as he allowed just one unearned run on just one hit, while striking out four in two innings of work.
Indianapolis and Toledo will now play a doubleheader, consisting of two seven inning contests, on Thursday, April 21 beginning at 5:30 p.m. Mud Hens LHP Charlie Furbush and Indians RHP Brad Lincoln are the probable starters for game one, while Toledo RHP Chris Oxspring and Indianapolis RHP Jose Ascanio are expected to get the nod in game two.
The contests will be carried on WNDE 1260 AM, WNDE.com and via iheartradio, a mobile application for iPhone, Blackberry and Android phones with Howard Kellman and Scott McCauley on the call. The pre-game show begins at 5:10 p.m.
Post-game quotes -- LHP Justin Wilson
(on the cold temperatures during the game)
"Truthfully, it didn't feel like 44, it felt much colder. You just got to deal with it. Me and JJ (Indians C Jason Jaramillo) talked before the game and we just said we got to block it out and do our job and that was the plan. We just tried to get ahead of guys. I felt I did an okay job with that but could have done a better job. I was able to get out of some situations and make some pitches."
(on if there was a key to the game pitching-wise)
"I mixed my pitches well. I kind of just had to make pitches when I needed them and JJ called a great game and my defense behind me made some great plays."
(on catching Iorg stealing in the fifth inning)
"I knew my pitch count was getting up there. Mainly I want to keep him close and get a double play. He was running on the play and I gave him a decent pick move and got him."
(on his first win in Triple-A)
"It's nice, we're trying to keep this train rolling on this road trip. It's nice to go out there, throw well and get a win."