Indians defeat Bears
It was a night of firsts for the Indians.
After losing six straight games on the road last week, and seven overall, the Indians opened the first game of a three-game Northwest League home series against Yakima on Saturday night with a 6-3 win over the Bears.
“It’s good to be home. The fans brought some great energy to the game for us and we really needed that to give us that lift,” Indians manager Tim Hulett said. “
Indians catcher Chris Gradoville bagged his first home run of the season with a three-run shot in the fifth that got the rowdy 6,741-strong home crowd on its feet.
“It felt good to get that out of the way,” Gradoville said. “I’ve been taking a lot of stuff from the guys about it because I’m supposed to be a home run-hitting kind of guy, I mean, a big guy who should be able to get us some runs.
“So that first one definitely meant a lot and felt good.”
Playing in his first game at Avista Stadium, Tim Smith – the Texas Rangers’ seventh round draft pick who just joined the Indians last week – also gave the home crowd something to cheer about.
Smith, who formerly played for Arizona State, earned his first minor league RBI in the seventh inning with a hit that drove home Renny Osuna, and would have put Smith safely on first base if he hadn’t tried to race for second.
“It was in the back of my mind, especially batting in the middle of the order, and it was good to get it out of the way,” Smith said. “I got a little greedy going for second there, but live and learn, right?”
The Bears got on the scoreboard first, scoring off a Mike Mee base hit in the second, and again off an Edward Easley home run in the third.
But Gradoville’s homer put the Indians back on track, and they sewed up the win with two more runs in the seventh from Kyle Murphy and Renny Osuna.
The bottom of the seventh was also punctuated by an altercation on the mound between Yakima manager Mike Bell and umpire Ryan Blakney that resulted in Bell’s ejection from the game. Blakney declined to comment on the nature of the incident.
After a week of close losses and blowouts, the Indians finished the night with 11 hits and the bullpen combined for 13 strikeouts.
“We had some close ones on the road and just didn’t get the breaks we needed,” Hulett said. “We didn’t pitch well, didn’t hit well, didn’t play defense well in different games, and every night it seemed like it was something different that went wrong.
“Tonight, we did just about everything well. We swung the bats, pitched well and got double-digit hits.”
The win puts the Indians in a three-way tie for first place with Boise and Tri-City in the NWL’s East Division.