Indians Split Thursday Contests With Saints 

ST. PAUL, MINN. – Following a St. Paul Saints walk-off 3-2 win in the continuation of Wednesday night’s suspended game, the Indianapolis Indians offense scored seven runs on a season-high 13 hits to take home the nightcap victory on Thursday, 7-3.

Cole Tucker led the Indians offense in Game 2, going 3-for-5 with a double, triple and three RBI. Christian Bethancourt, Hunter Owen, Bligh Madris – in his Triple-A Debut – and Jason Delay each had two hits apiece in the nightcap.

To begin the evening, the Indians and Saints picked up where they left off on Wednesday night, tied 2-2 in the bottom of the eighth inning. Austin Davis, in his first rehab appearance with Indy, tossed a perfect eighth frame to begin play. Shea Spitzbarth (L, 2-1) entered in the ninth and, after back-to-back two-out walks to load the bases, surrendered a walk-off single to Jimmy Kerrigan.

Behind a quality start from Miguel Yajure (W, 1-1), the Indians (9-5) retaliated in the second contest to split the unconventional doubleheader. They began the scoring in the fourth inning when a two-out double off the bat of from Christin Bethancourt scored Chris Sharpe from third base. Hunter Owen followed with a single to right to push the lead to 2-0.

St. Paul (6-9) cut Indy’s lead to one run in the bottom half of the inning. Yajure surrendered his only run of the night on a solo home run off the bat of major league rehabber Alex Kirilloff.

Indy tacked on insurance runs in the top of the fifth after Madris and Delay led off the inning with back-to-back singles. A throwing error by St. Paul starter Andrew Albers (L, 1-2) on a bunt single by Ethan Paul extended the Indians lead to 5-1. Tucker then earned his first RBI of the season and drove in Paul on a one-out double to right field.

In the top of the seventh, Tucker roped his second triple of the season to the right-center gap and drove in his second run of the night. The shortstop drove in one more in the ninth with a single.

Yajure tossed his second quality start of the season with six one-run innings and five strikeouts. Geoff Hartlieb and Matt Eckelman came out of the bullpen for Indianapolis and each surrendered a run.

Albers allowed five of the Indians seven runs (four earned) in five innings of work to take the loss.

The Indians will face St. Paul for the fourth game of the series on Friday night at 8:05 PM ET. RHP James Marvel (0-0, 3.48) will take the mound for Indy to face off against LHP Charlie Barnes (1-0, 4.00) for the Saints.