The Indians of Indianapolis took on the Triple-A affiliate of Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Indians, the Columbus Clippers, in Game 1 of the Governors’ Cup Championship Series in Columbus.
Indianapolis advanced to the championship series by way of sweeping in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders 3-0 in a best-of-five game semifinal series. The Clippers earned their opportunity to face the Indians by defeating the Norfolk Tide 3-2 in their best-of-five series.
Sharing identical records at 83-61, Columbus and Indianapolis went head to head 21 times this summer with the Clippers getting the upper hand winning 11 games to the Indians 10. That one game, led to Indianapolis being the winner of the wild card and the Clippers winning the division.
Game 1 of this highly-anticipated championship match-up went the way of the home team, Columbus. The Clippers battled back from a 5-1 deficit to overtake the Indians, 6-5, and gain a 1-0 advantage going in to Game 2 of the best-of-five series this evening.
Chris Volstad got the ball to start for Indianapolis facing off against Ryan Merrit of Columbus. Volstad was sharp early on getting the first five Clipper hitters out before giving up a hit.
The Indians took an early lead in the top of the third inning on a Gorkys Hernandez RBI single that scored Gustavo Nunez. Jesus Aguilar put the Clippers on the board in the bottom half of the third with an RBI single to plate James Ramsey and tie the game up at a run a piece.
Indianapolis loaded the bases in the top of the fourth inning, and a Dan Gamache single scored first baseman Josh Bell to give the away team the lead at 2-1.
Scoring would cease until the seventh inning when the Indians would plate three runs. Willy Garcia hit into a groundout that would score Hernandez from third to increase the Indianapolis lead to two. Steve Lombardozzi, Jr. would score on a passed ball by Columbus pitcher Adam Moore. Keon Broxton kept the inning alive with an RBI single to score Bell to put the Indians up three runs heading into the bottom half of the seventh inning.
Volstad went six innings giving up an earned run on six hits, one walk and seven strikeouts for the Indians. The bullpen proved to be the issue on this night for Indianapolis as reliever A.J. Morris came in and was unable to record an out. Morris would end up giving up three hits and three earned runs in the seventh inning allowing Columbus to tie the game up at 4.
Josh Wall took over for Morris in the seventh getting the Indians out of a jam and would come back out to face the Clippers offense in the eighth. An Audy Ciriaco home run would end Wall’s night for Indianapolis and give Columbus their first and only lead of the game.
Down to their final three outs in the ninth, the Indians went down in order.
Joseph Colon got the win for the Clippers as Wall got not only the loss but a blown save as well.
Indianapolis looks to bounce back from their first loss in the playoffs this season tomorrow in game-2 against Columbus putting ten-game winner, Wilfredo Boscan on the bump. The Clippers send out Toru Murata, a 15-game winner, for the 6:35pm game.
Game 3 will be held in Indianapolis with Game 4 and Game 5, if necessary, also being held at the home of the Indians, Victory Field.
Pitching match-ups for the upcoming games in the best-of-five game series are:
Game 2: Indianapolis (Wilfredo Boscan, 10-3, 3.07) at Columbus (Toru Murata, 15-4, 2.90), Wednesday, 6:35 p.m.
Game 3: Columbus (Will Roberts, 9-6, 3.45) at Indianapolis (Tyler Glasnow, 7-5, 3.49), Thursday, 7:05 p.m.
Game 4: Columbus (Jarrett Grube, 13-4, 2.57) at Indianapolis (Chad Kuhl, 11-5, 2.48), Friday, 7:15 p.m.*
Game 5: Columbus (Mike Clevinger, 9-8, 2.73) at Indianapolis (TBD), Saturday, 7:05 p.m.*
* -if necessary.
Photo credit: Indianapolis Indians
