Kramer sparks Indians with 5-for-5 night

In an up-and-down season for Kevin Kramer, Thursday was a high point.
The Pirates' seventh-ranked prospect recorded his second career five-hit game and scored a run to lead Triple-A Indianapolis to a 10-3 victory over Gwinnett at Coolray Field.

Gameday box score
"I was able to get a couple of hits early in the game," Kramer said. "I got one hit where they shifted me over, so it's just kind of a weird game. I was able to get the barrel on the ball in my last at-bats. I think it's one of those nights where some ground balls find some holes and things kind of just went my way."
The left-handed hitter raised his average 11 points to .293, the highest it's been since May 12. He's the first Tribe player with a five-hit game since Josh Harrison went 5-for-5 on May 28, 2011 at Pawtucket.
Kramer began his big night with an infield hit on a soft grounder to second base in the second inning against Braves No. 3 prospect Luiz Gohara. He came around to score the first Indians run on a single by Pablo Reyes.
"I had an infield chopper to the second baseman and he came in running in and charged it. He couldn't come up with it," Kramer said. "Then my ground ball up the middle, I thought it would get through, but the second baseman went to his right and made a really nice play, but I beat it out."
The 24-year-old legged out another infield single in the third before bunting for a hit in the fifth on a 1-0 count with third baseman Austin Riley shifted over to the right side.
"I figured I'd take advantage of that," Kramer said. "I had three hits to start the night that didn't leave the infield -- that's not something that happens very often. I was kind of lucky those first three at-bats."
The 2015 second-round pick lined his fourth single to right in the sixth on a 2-0 fastball from reliever Andres Santiago, then jumped on an 0-1 slider from Chad Bell and doubled on a liner to right in the eighth.
No matter how or where the hits fell, Kramer was just happy to reach base.
"It's awesome to get hits wherever you can. You can't really choose your hits," he said. "There's a lot of times where you hit the ball real hard at someone and they catch it. It's one of those things in baseball where you have to be happy where they fall, and sometimes they don't at all. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. That's what happened to me tonight, but luckily, I was in a good spot and had some really nice pitches late in the game and was able to barrel up some balls."
Pirates No. 6 prospect Kevin Newman went yard and drove in three runs for Indianapolis, while Austin Meadows homered, doubled and contributed a pair of RBIs. J.T. Brubaker (5-3), ranked 29th in the Pittsburgh system, notched the win after allowing two runs on eight hits and two walks with five strikeouts in five innings.
Gohara was charged with four runs on seven hits over 4 1/3 frames, walking one and striking out four.