Indians Drop Second Game in St. Paul Despite Willams’ Four-Hit Night
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Following a 33-minute rain delay at the outset, the Indianapolis Indians could not overcome an early deficit as they suffered an 8-3 loss against the St. Paul Saints at CHS Field on Thursday night.
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Following a 33-minute rain delay at the outset, the Indianapolis Indians could not overcome an early deficit as they suffered an 8-3 loss against the St. Paul Saints at CHS Field on Thursday night.
With the game tied 1-1 in the third inning, Michael Helman laced an RBI double off Indians starter Beau Sulser (L, 4-8) to take control of the contest. St. Paul (32-40, 70-76) followed Helman’s lead and added four runs between the fourth and fifth innings, courtesy of a solo homer from Chris Williams in the fourth and a Yunior Severino two-run blast and a Patrick Winkel RBI single in the fifth. During that stretch, Indy added a run in the fifth thanks to a sacrifice fly from Jack Suwinski.
The Indians and Saints each traded a run in the eighth inning. Indy managed to add a run in the top half, after Andrés Alvarez grounded into a fielder’s choice to cap Indy’s scoring. St. Paul quickly answered with an RBI single from Payton Eeles and a DaShawn Keirsey Jr. sacrifice fly to provide insurance.
The Saints took an early lead after Eeles crushed a solo home run off Sulser in the Saints’ first at-bat of the contest. In the second frame, Tsung-Che Cheng knotted the score at one after he shot an RBI single to right field off Cory Lewis (W, 1-0). The right-hander yielded two earned runs and punched out a pair in his Triple-A debut.
Indianapolis (41-30, 74-70) struggled on the mound on Thursday night, as Sulser surrendered six earned runs on seven hits in tonight’s contest. The Indians bullpen dealt with traffic on the basepaths as well but combined for 3.1 innings with four strikeouts to finish the contest.
Alika Williams led the Indians’ offense after he tied his season high with four hits. In his last three games with Indianapolis, he has a .571 batting average (8-for-14) with four runs scored and a double.
The Indians and Saints continue their six-game series on Friday evening at CHS Field at 7:37 PM ET. RHP Domingo Germán (7-4, 5.07) gets the nod for Indianapolis and RHP Marco Raya (0-0, -.--) will make his Triple-A debut for the Saints.