INDIANAPOLIS INDIANS GAME INFORMATION 501 West Maryland Street - Indianapolis, IN 46225 ♦ (317) 269-3542 ♦ @IndyIndians ♦ IndyIndians.com/MediaKit Indianapolis Indians Thursday, June 17, 2021 7:05 PM ET Memphis Redbirds 20-17 (T-2nd, 6.0 GB, AAA-E MW) Victory Field ♦ Indianapolis, IN 15-23 (6th, 10.5 GB, AAA-E SE) RHP Cody Ponce (0-2, 6.66) Game #38 / Home #15 RHP Angel Rondón (0-3, 5.32) Radio/TV: FoxSportsIndy.com / AM 1260 / iHeart app / MiLB TV/ MyINDYTV 23 2021 at a glance indy bits series history Overall 20-17 2021 @ IND: 2-0 Home 11-3 LAST NIGHT: Off three massive home runs out to left field and a stellar starting performance by Beau Sulser, the Indians won their fourth consecutive Road 9-14 2021 @ MEM: no games Place T-2nd game to tie a season-high winning streak and take a 2-0 series lead on Memphis last night. Anthony Alford got things started en route to the 6-1 win over All-Time @ IND: 2-0 (1.000) GA/GB 6.0 GB the Redbirds with a 450-foot leadoff home run out to the left-field concourse. Chris Sharpe followed Alford in the fifth inning with a two-out, three-run All-Time @ MEM: no games Streak W4 Regular Season Totals: 2-0 (1.000) Home Streak W2 shot of his own to extend the Indians’ lead past the reach of the Redbirds. Jason Delay then bounced one off the Yuengling Landing roof in the left-field Road Streak W2 corner for his first long ball of the season. Memphis broke up the shut out with one run in the top of the eighth inning, but the Indians took it right back off 2021 TEAM COMPARISON Longest Winning Streak 4 (2x) a sacrifice fly by T.J. Rivera in the bottom half. Longest Losing Streak 7 Indians Redbirds Last 5 4-1 .225 BA .224 Last 10 6-4 VICTORIES AT THE VIC: With the win vs. Memphis last night, the Indians are now 11-3 (.786) at Victory Field for their best start to a home campaign Home Openings/Lost 12/1 160 R 151 Home Attendance 44,452 since the 2013 season. In 2013, Indy began the season with a 17-3 (.850) record at home through May 12 and had a 27-11 (.711) overall record in that 267 H 269 Avg. Home Attendance 3,419 span. The Indians ended that season 41-31 (.569) in the Circle City. The best Victory Field record in a single season came in 1997, the Indians first full 55 2B 49 League Rank (Total/Avg) 18th/12th 6 3B 10 year at the corner of West and Maryland Street, when they went 49-23 (.681). 41 HR 37 Day Games 3-4 148 RBI 141 Night Games 17-13 456 TB 449 Before All-Star Break 20-17 OPENING ON TOP: With one run in the bottom of the first inning off an Anthony Alford solo home run, the Indians have now scored in the first frame in 153 BB 139 After All-Star Break 0-0 four consecutive games dating back to June 12 at Nashville. When scoring at least one run in the first inning, the Indians are 10-2 on the season with the 371 K 333 May 11-12 22 SB 17 June 9-5 only two losses coming on May 26 and 29 at Omaha. Not only have the Indians been good about opening games with runs on the board, they’ve won six of 7 CS 10 July 0-0 their seven series openers this season. With last night’s win in Game 2 of the series vs. Memphis, the Indians have now taken a 2-0 lead in two series this .322 OBP .312 August 0-0 .384 SLG .374 September 0-0 season. In the last series with a 2-0 lead, also at Victory Field, the Indians went on to beat Toledo five games to one. Tuesday 6-1 318.1 IP 331.0 Wednesday 2-3 ALFORD LEADING OFF: Anthony Alford launched his second leadoff home run in the past three games last night to put the Indians on top in the first 3.87 ERA 5.63 Thursday 2-5 inning. He went 1-for-3 with a walk and two runs scored to improve his on-base percentage to a league-ranking .426 (3rd) in the Triple-A East and his 1.29 WHIP 1.54 Friday 4-3 9 SV 3 Saturday 4-1 OPS to .949 (8th). On Tuesday, he reached base safely in four of his five plate appearances in the leadoff spot (1B, HBP, 2 BB). Alford came around to 281 H 339 Sunday 2-4 score three of the Indians’ six runs that night. His first leadoff home run of the season came on Sunday at Nashville and was the Indians’ first home run to 149 R 221 Game 1 6-1 open a game since Travis Swaggerty on May 11 vs. Toledo. 137 ER 207 Game 2 2-5 39 HR 53 Game 3 3-3 16 HB 20 Game 4 3-3 TABLE SETTING TEAMMATES: With Anthony Alford’s second leadoff home run of the 2021 season last night, him and Travis Swaggerty became the third 130 BB 172 Game 5 5-1 pair of Indians teammates since 2005 to each hit at least two leadoff home runs in a season. Andrew McCutchen and Brian Bixler (3) were the first pair 356 K 318 Game 6 2-3 to accomplish the feat during the 2009 season, with Bixler hitting all three of his leadoff home runs in the month of July. Kevin Newman and Max Moroff Scoring First 15-5 INDIANS VS. THE AAA-E Opponent Scores First 5-12 were the last to do it in 2018. Comeback Wins 6 vs. Teams At/Above .500: 5-10 Opponent Comeback Wins 7 vs. Teams Below .500: 15-7 Extra Innings 1-1 SULSER SHUTS ‘EM DOWN: Beau Sulser tossed six shutout innings vs. Memphis last night for his first career Triple-A quality start and the Indians’ vs. AAA-E Midwest: 15-14 Shutout Record 1-2 first as a team since May 22 at St. Paul (Chase De Jong: 6.0ip, 4h, 1r, 1er, 1bb, 6k). He retired the first seven batters of the game before surrendering a vs. AAA-E Southeast: 5-3 Doubleheaders 2-0 vs. AAA-E Northeast: no games Commit An Error 6-13 one-out double to Juan Yepez in the third inning, the Redbirds’ only extra-base hit of the game. Sulser allowed four hits in the outing with a pair of walks Commit No Errors 14-4 and five strikeouts. The scoreless outing improved Sulser’s ERA to 3.82 (15er/35.1ip), eighth-best among qualifying Triple-A East pitchers. The Indians as Series (W-L-S): 3-2-1 Walk-Off Wins 1 a team have had five total quality starts this season, with Miguel Yajure and Chase De Jong each recording two. Sweeps: 0-1 Walk-Off Losses 3 Scoring 4+ Runs 18-6 2021 AAA-E STANDINGS Scoring 3 Or Fewer Runs 2-12 SCORELESS SPITZBARTH: With one perfect inning last night to close out the win vs. Memphis, reliever Shea Spitzbarth extended his scoreless streak Outhit Opponent 12-5 to 9.1 innings dating back to May 23 at St. Paul. In that stretch he has a 0.96 WHIP and .129 average against (4-for-31). In 13 appearances this season, MIDWEST Outhit By Opponent 6-11 Teams Tie in Hits 2-1 Spitzbarth is 2-1 with a 1.23 ERA (2er/14.2ip) and 11 strikeouts. Team W-L GB Indy Hits HR 17-8 OMA 26-11 - Indy no HR 3-9 CRAIG HITTING CLEANUP: With a 2-for-4 performance last night, Will Craig recorded his fourth multi-hit game in six contests during the month of June. IND 20-17 6.0 Opp. Hits HR 10-13 TOL 20-17 6.0 Opp. no HR 10-4 Since returning to the Indians’ lineup from Pittsburgh on June 10, Craig is hitting .417 (10-for-24) with three doubles, five RBI and five runs scored. In 13 STP 18-20 8.5 Lead After 6 17-2 total games with Indianapolis this season, he is hitting .320 (16-for-50) with five doubles, three home runs, 12 RBI and nine runs scored. Trail After 6 2-14 COL 16-21 10.0 Tied After 6 2-1 LOU 13-24 13.0 Lead After 7 16-1 KELLER’S K’S: Mitch Keller made his first Triple-A appearance this season last night out of the Indians’ bullpen. He threw eight pitches, all for strikes, to IOW 12-24 13.5 Trail After 7 1-14 Tied After 7 3-2 induce a ground ball and two strikeouts in the frame. It was just the second relief appearance of his career and first since July 11, 2014 with GCL Pirates NORTHEAST Lead After 8 16-0 when he tossed 3.0 one-hit innings vs. GCL Phillies. Trail After 8 0-14 Team W-L GB Tied After 8 2-3 SWB 25-11 - TONIGHT: The Indians will look to extend their winning streak to a season-high five games tonight at 7:05 PM ET vs. the Redbirds. RHP Cody Ponce will Vs. LH Starter 4-4 WOR 24-14 2.0 Vs. RH Starter 16-13 take the mound to try and earn his first win of the season.