d'Arnaud Leads Tribe Over Bisons 12-6
With the win Indianapolis improves to 31-32 on the season, while loss drops Buffalo's record to 27-36 so far in 2011. The win also gives the Indians a 3-1 series victory and a 6-2 final advantage in the season series with the Bisons.
One night after the Buffalo offense pounded out 15 runs on 11 hits, the Tribe offense responded with an outburst of their own, plating 12 runs and matching a season high with 16 hits. Along with d'Arnaud (4-for-5, 2 R, 5 RBI), LF Alex Presley (2-for-5, 1 R, 1 RBI), 1B John Bowker (2-for-5, 1 R, 1 RBI), RF Miles Durham (3-for-4, 3 R, 1 RBI), C Eric Fryer (2-for-4, 3 R, 1 RBI) and CF Gorkys Hernandez (2-for-5, 2 R, 1 RBI) also all posted multi-hit efforts for the Indians.
However, from the lead-off spot it was d'Arnaud that both started and ended the scoring for the Tribe, matching single game career highes in hits and RBI in the process. The speedy right handed slugger began the night with a bang when in the top of the second inning he launched his fourth home run of the season over the center field fence to plate both starting pitcher Rudy Owens and Fryer to give the Tribe a 3-0 lead.
Then after Buffalo got a run back with a single tally in the bottom of the second, the Indians tacked on three more scores in the fourth on an RBI double from Fryer, an RBI single from Hernandez and a sacrifice fly from 2B Brian Friday. The Bisons, however, would not go away easily as they plated two more tallies in the fifth on a two-run bomb off the bat of 1B Valentino Pascucci to cut the deficit to 6-3.
As they have so many times this season the Tribe continued to tack on runs late in the contest, plating a single score in the seventh, three more in the eighth and two in the ninth to put the game away. After Durham brought home Bowker with a clutch two-out single in the seventh, Hernandez and d'Arnaud would rope singles to spark the Tribe's eighth inning rally.
Following d'Arnaud's base knock, Friday would lift his second sac fly of the game to plate Hernandez, before a double from Presley scored d'Arnaud. Presley would then quickly trot home himself when Bowker followed with a single to center to extend the Tribe lead to 10-3.
Buffalo did manage to tack on another score in the eighth and two more in the ninth, but d'Arnaud would put a nice bow on the Indians victory with a two-out two-run single in the top of the ninth that plated Durham and Fryer and pushed the Indians final run total to 12.
Indianapolis starter Rudy Owens (5.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 4 SO) fought through five innings to earn the victory and improve to 6-4 on the season, while Buffalo starter Mark Cohoon (5.0 IP, 6 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 3 SO) suffered the loss to fall to 1-2 after allowing six runs on six hits over five innings of work. Tribe reliever Chris Leroux (2.0 IP, 2 H, 2 SO) continued to pitch well out of the Indianapolis bullpen as he struck out two over two scoreless frames of relief.
Indianapolis now returns home to Victory Field for four games against the Gwinnett Braves beginning on Saturday, June 11 at 7:05 p.m. LHP Brian Burres is scheduled to take the mound for the Indians in the series opener, while LHP Yohan Flande is expected to get the call for the Braves .
A team autograph session begins the homestand as players and coaches will sign autographs on the Victory Field concourse from 5:45 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. prior to Saturday's series opener.
The contest will be carried on WNDE 1260 AM, WNDE.com and via iheartradio, a mobile application for iPhone, Blackberry and Android phones, while also being broadcast live on Comcast and Bright House Networks digital channel 81 with Howard Kellman and Scott McCauley on the call. The pre-game show begins at 6:45 p.m.
Post-game quotes -- SS Chase d'Arnaud
(on hitting the three-run homer after Buffalo walked staring pitcher Rudy Owens)
"The count on Rudy got to 3-2 and as soon as it went to ball four, I wanted to make it hurt. But at the same time I didn't want to try to do too much. All I was trying to do was to find a good pitch to hit and keep my eyes up the middle. It was a fastball up and I just took my hands straight to it and hit the ball square."
(on if he knew the home run was gone when he hit it)
"I hit it good and I was confident the center fielder was not going to catch it, but I wasn't sure if it was going to get out of the park. I got to second base and looked around a little bit to make sure it was out before I continued."