Indians’ formula: balance plus Clark

The Spokane Indians are 8-4 in their last dozen games thanks to different players stepping up at key times and the overall play of LeDarious Clark. Read game story

You won’t find many Spokane Indians listed among the Northwest League’s offensive leaders except for Clark, who is compiling Most Valuable Player-like numbers.

After Tuesday’s win over Boise, Clark is batting .411, second in the league behind Boise’s Yonathan Daza, who was just promoted, and is among the league leaders with 11 stolen bases, 20 runs, 14 runs batted in, 30 hits and 46 total bases. Entering Tuesday’s game his slugging percentage was .638 and on-base percentage .482.

No other Indians are among the top five in offensive categories except for Dylan Moore, with nine extra-base hits, and Doug Votolato, with 13 walks.

The lineup that manager Tim Hulett used on Tuesday — other than Clark — had just three players with batting averages better than .250, topped by the .277 of Darius Day.

Yet the Indians are taking turns getting the big hits. Tuesday it was Jamie Potts, whose double to lead off the bottom of the eighth inning led to the go-ahead run. Earlier in the game, Yeyson Yrizarri, who is batting .219, gave Spokane a 2-0 lead with a two-out RBI single to right field.

“We’re playing a good brand of baseball,” Hulett said. “Every night it’s a different guy, really, doing it, except for Clark, who does it every night. We just kind of expect it. He ‘only’ got one or two hits tonight. I mean, what’s the deal?”