Ensberg's long ball lifts Bisons over Tribe 5-3
The Bisons improve to 55-65 on the season and 27-33 at home, while the Indians fall to 56-64 overall and 26-32 on the road. The win for Buffalo ties the season series at 4-4 as both teams gained a series split at each others home park.
With the score tied 2-2 entering the fifth, DH Todd Linden led off with a single before Ensberg belted his fourth homer of the season to put the Bisons ahead for good. .
Buffalo added an insurance run in eighth, when 2B Andy Cannizaro doubled to lead off the inning and eventually came around to score on a base knock by 1B Jordan Brown.
Indianapolis jumped out to an early lead 2-0 as LF Nyjer Morgan, 2B Brian Bixler and CF Andrew McCutchen led off the game with three straight singles. After Morgan trotted home on the McCutchen base hit, Bixler came plateward when DH Neil Walker grounded into a double play.
The Bisons quickly evened up the score with two runs in the third. Cannizaro led off the inning with a walk and eventually scored on an Indians error, before RF Trevor Crowe singled and came around to score on a Linden double.
Morgan pulled the Tribe to within one in the seventh inning doubling in C Michel Hernandez, who reached on a two-out single to center field.
Buffalo LHP Zach Jackson (6.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO) started and picked up the win to improve to 3-1 on the season. The Bison's bullpen tossed 2.2 perfect innings as RHP Jeff Weaver (1.1 IP, 1 SO) picked up his first hold of the season and RHP Edward Buzachero (1.0 IP) notched his fourth save of the campaign.
Crowe (2-for-3, 1 R), Brown (3-for-5, 1 RBI) and Linden (2-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI) all turned in multi-hit efforts for the Bisons, while Morgan (2-for-2, 1 R, 1 RBI) was the only Indian to collect multiple hits.
Indians LHP Corey Hamman (5.0 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 4 SO) started and took the loss to drop to 2-3 on the season, while RHP Mike Thompson (3.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 1 SO) finished out the game for the Tribe.
Indianapolis continues its eight-game road trip with a four-game set at Rochester. Indians RHP Ross Ohlendorf is scheduled to start Friday's 7:05 p.m. opener against Red Wings RHP Kevin Mulvey.
The contest will be carried by WXLW-950 AM and www.IndyIndians.com with Howard Kellman and Scott McCauley. The pre-game show begins at 6:45 p.m.
Post-game quotes -- OF Nyjer Morgan
(on playing so many close games)
"In close games it's just important to continue to bear down and play hard. Close games came sometimes be decided by lucky breaks so you need to stay focused and try to finish each game strong no matter what has happened."
(on his mind set with runners in scoring position)
"All I do is slow the game down and try and understand how the pitcher is throwing. You hit according to what the situation dictates. You just need to continue to try and put the ball and play and see if you can understand what is being thrown."