Urquidy Spins Gem as Indians Top Saints

ST. PAUL, Minn. – José Urquidy allowed one run across 6.0 innings as the Indianapolis Indians defeated the St. Paul Saints on Friday night at CHS Field, 8-3. The Indians offense piled up 14 hits for the first win of the series.

Urquidy (W, 3-3) was sensational last Sunday and carried it over into Friday’s start. He allowed a pair of hits in the first frame and a leadoff home run in the second, but he would go on to retire 13 of the final 14 batters he faced. Urquidy did not walk a batter and has not issued more than one free pass in any outing this season with Indianapolis (25-36). Overall, he worked six innings to earn the victory.

The Indians offense amassed all the run support Urquidy would need in the first pair of innings. Billy Cook doubled home Dominic Fletcher in the first, and Shawn Ross’ leadoff home run in the second was the highlight of a three-run frame.

After the offense used grounders and fielders’ choices to amass three more runs in the fourth and fifth, Esmerlyn Valdez resupplied the power. He hit a towering blast over the left-center field wall for his 11th home run with the Indians this season. It pushed the lead over St. Paul (32-28) to 8-1.

The Saints inched closer on home runs by Kyler Fedko and Kaelen Culpepper but were silenced in the ninth. Ricky Castro (L, 0-1) allowed four runs across 2.2 innings as the St. Paul starter.

The Indians and Saints will play the penultimate game of the six-game series on Saturday night, first pitch at CHS Field is set for 7:37 PM ET. Indianapolis has not named a starter while St. Paul will send LHP Aaron Rozek (0-0, 2.86) to the mound.