Chase d'Arnaud slid in safely at third with a stolen base.
















Columbus Clippers  5,  Indianapolis Indians  2 
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The Indians and Clippers finally got some sunshine to play under, but the change in weather also brought a change in fortune.  The Indians' 4-game winning streak and the Clippers 4-game losing streak both came to an end, as the Clippers avoided being swept in this 4-game series at Victory Field.  


The Indians were held to just 4 hits, and half of them came off the bat of SS Chase d'Arnaud.  The Tribe batters were not able to take advantage of 3 walks either.  D'Arnaud opened the bottom of the 1st with his first hit, a cracked-bat bloop that fell in behind second base where none of the Clippers' fielders could get to it.  D'Arnaud stole second, coming in easily under a very high throw from former Indy Indian, C Luke Carlin (photo).  2B Brian Friday popped up to second base, then LF Alex Presley walked.  With RF John Bowker at the plate, d'Arnaud and Presley pulled off a double steal, to put both runners into scoring position.  Bowker hit a dribbly little "oops" ball to the left and in front of the mound, but with d'Arnaud off and running on the pitch, by the time Columbus starter Corey Kluber got to the ball, he had no play on d'Arnaud at the plate.  Bowker was out at first, but with an RBI, and the Indians had a 1-0 lead.  1B Matt Hague walked, and the Indians again had runners on the corners, but 3B Josh Harrison struck out to end the inning.  





Tribe starter Brian Burres (photo) retired the Clippers in order in the top of the 1st, but got into a little jam in the 2nd.  With one out, Burres gave up a single to DH Jason Kipnis.  Kipnis's grounder glanced off the end of d'Arnaud's glove as he stretched to make the play, and the ball ended up in center field.  Burres struck out LF Jerad Head next.  Kipnis stole second base, then 1B Wes Hodges worked a walk, to put runners on first and second base.  C Jason Jaramillo ended the inning for Burres with a throw down to first base.  Hodges was so far off the base, that the throw from Jaramillo beat him by a mile (ok, by 6 feet), and Hodges didn't even bother to slide.  

The Clippers tied the score in the top of the 3rd.  Burres got one out, then worked the count full on SS Luis Valbuena before walking him.  CF Ezequiel Carrera grounded slowly to first base, where Hague was able to make the scoop and step on the bag, but Valbuena was already sliding in to second base.  Valbuena came around to score from second base on 2B Cord Phelps' grounder down the first base line, just out of reach of Hague, who tried a dive to his left but could only tick the ball as it zipped past.  

The Altoona Curve had a scheduled day off on Monday....

West Virginia Power  9,  Kannapolis Intimidators  8
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Late inning rallies for a total of 7 runs gave the Power the win over Kannapolis.  1B Matt Curry got the scoring started with a solo home run to begin the bottom of the 2nd.  That run was overwhelmed, though, when the Intimidators exploded for 6 runs in the top of the 3rd.  Power starter Zack Von Rosenberg had allowed only one walk over the first two innings, but that fell apart in the 3rd inning.  A single, a walk, and a triple brought in two runs.  A sacrifice fly gave Von Rosenberg the first out of the inning, but it also scored the runner from third, for a 3-1 lead.  Two more singles, another triple, and another single brought in 3 more runs, for a 6-1 lead, and sent Von Rosenberg to the showers.   Zac Fuesser relieved Von Rosenberg, and Fuesser's first move was to pick off the runner on first base and get him out in a run-down.  A walk and a strikeout ended the inning.  

The Power got one of the runs back in the bottom of the 3rd, on 3B Eric Avila's double and a fielding error on LF Dan Grovatt's bouncer to short.  Fuesser gave up a pair of walks and a single in the 4th, but a timely double play kept any runs from scoring.  He also gave up a pair of singles in the 5th, but was aided by an outfield assist from Grovatt.  Kannapolis scored again in the 6th, with a two-out ground-rule double and an RBI single.  Two more doubles gave Kannapolis another run in the top of the 7th, for an 8-2 lead.

Then the Power burst out with 7 unanswered runs over their last two at-bats to take the lead and the win.  With one out, DH Jairo Marquez lined a single into left field, and Avila drove him in with a triple.  SS Drew Maggi's ground out plated Avila.  2B Kevin Mort singled and pinch-hitter Rogelios Noris walked, but they did not score in that inning.  The Power continued the surge right where they left off in the 8th.  RF Justin Howard led off with a double and CF Mel Rojas was hit by a pitch.  C Kawika Emsley-Pai loaded the bases with a walk.  Marquez drove in Howard with a single grounded into right field, leaving the bases still loaded.  Avila bounced to short, for a force out at second base, but Rojas scored the second run of the inning on the play.  After an out, Mort singled, plating Emsley-Pai, then Noris tripled in both Avila and Mort, for the tying and go-ahead runs.  

Zach Foster relieved Fuesser for the final two innings.  Foster allowed a double and hit a batter with a pitch in the 8th, but two strikeouts left them stranded.   He also walked a batter in the 9th, but got two more strikeouts to preserve the Power lead and earned his first win of the season.  

The throw from first bounced off the runner Ezequiel Carrera and skipped past 2B Pedro Ciriaco.













Indianapolis Indians  7,  Columbus Clippers  3
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Another rainy day, an another win for the Indians.

The Tribe waited out a 95 minute delay before the game even started, then hung on through a drizzly rainy game, to win their fourth game in a row -- their longest winning streak of the season.  They also handed the first-place Columbus Clippers their fourth loss in a row.  Justin Thomas earned his second win of the season, and 2B Pedro Ciriaco blasted a huge 3-run homer, while 3B Brian Friday went 3-for-4 at the plate.

Rudy Owens (photo) made the start for the Tribe, but ended up not being involved in the decision.  Owens pitched 6 innings and allowed only 2 runs, which came in the top of the 1st and involved a strange play.  Clippers' CF Ezequiel Carrera led off with a bunt single, which Owens could not get into his glove.   Owens made a pick-off throw to first as Carrera took off for second.  1B Matt Hague relayed the throw to second, but the ball bounced off the sliding Carrera and eluded 2B Ciriaco.  The ball skipped into left field, and Carrera advanced to third base, as Ciriaco was charged with a missed catch error.  RF Jerad Head tapped back to the mound.  Owens scooped up the ball, glared Carrera into staying put on third base, then threw to first for the out.  3B Lonnie Chisenhall was hit on the hip by a pitch to give the Clippers runners on the corners.  DH Chad Huffman slipped a grounder past a diving Hague, and Carrera scored from third base.  2B Jason Kipnis followed with a long fly ball to center field for a sacrifice fly, which scored Chisenhall for a 2-0 lead.  

The Indians came right back to score one run in the bottom of the 1st off Columbus starter Zach McAllister.  With one out, Ciriaco reached base when 3B Chisenhall made the scoop but dropped the ball on the transfer.  CF Alex Presley blooped a single into short left field, which fell in between two Columbus fielders.  Ciriaco rounded second base and got partway to third, then got hung up as the Columbus LF Josh Rodriguez had the ball and was about to throw it in.  Ciriaco got out of his poor base-running when he made a dash for third, and Rodriguez made a poor throw to third base, as Ciriaco slid in safely.  Presley moved up to second base on the throw to third.  LF John Bowker grounded to short, collecting an RBI as Ciriaco scored from third to cut the Clippers' lead to 2-1.

After wins for everyone on Saturday, it's losses for everyone on Sunday:

Erie SeaWolves  2,  Altoona Curve  1  
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It took 13 innings to finish this pitching duel, when the Curve could not respond to a run scored by the SeaWolves in the top of the inning.  

The Curve had put a runner on base in three of the first four innings:  a double by SS Jordy Mercer in the 2nd, a single by 2B Brock Holt in the 3rd, and a single by LF Quincy Latimore in the 4th.  The Curve scored first, with a run in the bottom of the 5th.  C Eric Fryer led off with a single, and he scored on 1B Miles Durham's double to center field.  

Starter Aaron Pribanic mowed down the SeaWolves with 6 scoreless innings.  He struck out 4 batters and did not walk any, and had to work around only 2 hits, plus a batter reaching base on a throwing error.  After a single in the 2nd, Pribanic retired 13 consecutive Erie batters.  He gave up another single to begin the 7th inning, then was relieved by Matt McSwain.  Pribanic had thrown 79 pitches, with 53 strikes.

McSwain gave up a double, but got out of the 7th inning without a run scoring.  RF Brad Chalk helped out with a timely double play, when he made the catch on a fly ball, then threw out a base runner at third.  Tim Alderson took the mound to begin the 8th inning, and he retired the side in order.  But in the 9th, Alderson gave up a run on a single, a throwing error by 3B Jeremy Farrell on a bunt play, and an RBI double.  

The Curve had only one base runner in the 6th - 8th innings, when Holt was hit by a pitch in the 8th.  DH Tony Sanchez singled in the bottom of the 9th, but got no further, and the game moved into extra innings.  

Alderson pitched a scoreless top of the 10th, and the Curve went down in order in the bottom of the inning.  Michael Dubee took over for Alderson in the top of the 11th.  Dubee pitched 2 scoreless innings, allowing only a single in the 12th.  The Curve went down in order again in the bottom of the 11th, but threatened in the 12th.  Farrell was hit by a pitch to begin the inning, then Fryer walked.  A double play ended the inning without a run scoring.  

Chris Leroux came on to pitch the top of the 13th, which began with a triple lined into right field.  Chalk threw the ball in to the cut-off man Durham, whose relay throw went wild for an error, letting the runner score the go-ahead run.  Leroux retired the next three batters, and the Curve had one more chance.  

Pinch-hitter Jose Hernandez led off the bottom of the 13th with a line drive double into left field.  Holt put down a sacrifice bunt to move Hernandez to third base.  CF Starling Marte popped out to first base, and Latimore was hit by a pitch, and advanced to second on defensive indifference.  But a strikeout by Mercer ended the game with the two runners in scoring position, and Erie had the win.