Pitching guides Spokane to victory
If the bullpen were responsible for the Spokane Indians’ loss on Monday night, it was an integral part of the Indians’ victory on Tuesday night.
Southpaw Derek Holland led Spokane (14-20) to a 9-3 win over Boise to take the three-game series 2-1 in Northwest League play at Avista Stadium.
Over 24 hours, Indians pitchers appeared to have developed poise – something lacking in Spokane’s 15-4 defeat from the night before.
With the bases loaded in the fourth, Holland overcame his nerves to get back on top, and struck out two batters to end the inning.
“It was actually nerve-wracking,” Holland said. “(Pitching coach Keith Comstock) came out got me a little more composed, got me to relax and told me to fight through it and I’d be all right.”
Holland pitched five innings and struck out six batters before relinquishing the mound to Keisuke Ueno, who fed off the upswing in momentum to retire another four batters. Ueno was unhittable in two innings.
“The bullpen coaches did say stuff to us today,” said Holland, “Yesterday we weren’t ready to play and didn’t come prepared. Today was a much better day.”
Indians manager Tim Hulett dispensed a dose of positive reinforcement at practice before the game, hoping to help the players refocused.
“They got a steady diet of running today,” Hulett said. “It’s one thing not to pitch well, it’s a whole different game when you’re not doing the fundamentals, and we addressed that.
“Running will bring about focus a lot of the time pretty quick.”
The hard workout brought dividends in the Indians’ batting and defense as well.
Led by Jonathan Greene’s three RBIs and rookie Eric Fry’s fourth-inning home run, the Indians put together 14 hits – more than three times the four hits from Monday’s loss.
Fry, who was called up from rookie league last week, has four RBIs and two home runs in four games played.
“I’m still a little nervous, had some butterflies my first game,” said Fry, drafted out of high school by the Rangers in the 33rd round of the 2006 draft. “Coming out of high school, I’m still not used to a crowd this big. But I’ll get used to it.”
The Indians limited the East Division-leading Hawks (17-18) to six hits, and completely shut down leadoff batter Dylan Johnston, who had gone 5 for 5 the night before.
“Last night we didn’t do any of the facets very well. Tonight we did them all well. We hit, we pitched and we played defense tonight,” Hulett said. “We’ve put a few games together like this, and we’ve played two well now against the first place team. There’s no doubt that we can play well, we just have to put it together.
“We’re looking for consistency. And when you’re talking 18- to 21-year-olds, it takes a while for them to figure that out. We’re still working on that.”