Osuna shines in Indians’ first win
When Renny Osuna stepped up to the plate for his first at-bat on Thursday night, he wasn’t thinking of the personal milestone that would ensue.
The Spokane Indians first baseman was simply hoping to reach the base he covers on defense.
“I think about my contact because I’ve had some days off, so I had to think about my timing and making an adjustment on my swing,” Osuna said. “Now when I step up to bat, I just think of putting the ball on the ground and getting to base.”
Osuna knocked out a two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning – his first homer in the Texas Rangers organization – and the Indians (1-2) picked up their first Northwest League baseball win of the season, a 3-1 victory over the Eugene Emeralds (2-1) at Avista Stadium in front of a crowd of 6,358.
“I feel great because I had two strikes and just stepped into my approach to make contact,” said Osuna.
A native of Venezuela, Osuna has a .280 career average in the minor leagues. After being drafted by the Rangers in the 32nd round of the 2005 first-year player draft, Osuna played in the Dominican Summer League. He finished with a .234 average in 21 games for the Arizona League Rangers last summer and was 3 for 4 on Thursday, driving in all three runs for the Indians.
“You always love to see them come and get that first hit – especially if it’s a home run,” Indians manager Tim Hulett said. “He’s not really a home run hitter. He’s just trying to get a base hit and they made a pitch and he connected on it – it was good to see for him, he’s always got a smile on his face.”
The Indians also had another solid night on the mound.
Starter Jake Brigham, a right-hander from Winter Garden, Fla., struck out four, scattered two hits and allowed one run in five innings of work before lefty Ryan Falcon threw one-hit ball over the next two innings.
“It feels great,” Brigham said “I wanted to get ground balls and let my team work for me, I felt really strong and felt good with (Chris Gradoville) behind the plate. He called a good game tonight – and my fielders were unbelievable.”
Spokane righty Ryan Tatusko got himself out of a one-out, bases-loaded situation in the top of the eighth. He hit two batters and Eugene’s Luis Durango singled to short to load the bases. Danny Payne struck out swinging and Zach Brown, who homered twice in Wednesday night’s game, flew out to center for the final out.
The Emeralds returned the favor in the bottom of the inning.
Osuna singled to center and Kyle Murphy was hit by Eugene lefty Brandon Higelin. Designated hitter Ian Gac flew out to center, advancing Osuna to third before Higelin walked Steve Marquardt to load the bases with one out. Tim Rodriguez hit a liner along third base that third baseman Justin Baum snagged on a diving catch. Baum tagged third before Osuna made it back to retire the side.
Hulett said the difference was the defense, which had made three costly throwing errors in the first two games of the five-game series.
“I’m happy for the guys – they’ve been working hard. We had a good workout today and we felt real good about tonight’s game,” Hulett said. “We put together a complete game. It’s really the third night that we’ve ran some pretty good arms out there, and tonight we just didn’t have the bad inning where we had walks, hits and errors all in one inning. So we did a great job playing some good defense out there.”