You don’t have to guess that things went much better for the Indians 2 against the Diamondbacks, despite Indians 1 being the favorite and Indians 2 being the underdog in their respective matches.
While they didn’t score early, the Indians threatened often in this game with two base runners in the first and one in the second with Lenny Torres throwing four two hit innings on the other side. Torres didn’t walk a batter and struck out four while making his seventh appearance in professional baseball. This was his first time going four innings and his fourth game in a row with at least four strike outs. He has still never allowed more than one run in a game and now has three earned runs allowed in his first 19.1 innings pitched. With four strike outs and no walks, he now has 26 strike outs to just 4 walks in 2018.
No runs were scored until Torres was removed from the game and Wilmer Mejia was used in relief. In the bottom of the sixth Quentin Holmes tripled off Michel Gelabert to start the inning, then scored on a Raynel Delgado single to knock Gelabert from the game. That would be all the damage that inning, but when the Diamondbacks went back to the bullpen for Liu Fuenmayor in the seventh the Indians were able to expand their lead.
Johnathan Engelmann started the inning when he was safe on an error, then Henderson De Oleo moved him to second with a single. Gionti Turner walked to load the bases and Billy Wilson singled home a pair of runs before Holmes grounded into an odd 5-2-4 double play that caught Turner out at home.
Mejia would stay in through the eighth, when he loaded the bases with a walk and two singles. He was then pulled from the game for Jose Oca, but Oca walked in a run before retiring the next two batters, giving an earned run to Mejia and allowing the DBacks to diminish the lead to two runs. Oca is a solid reliever, however, and he retired the final five batters he faced in order to earn his first save in Arizona.
While the Indians 1 losing cost there being any chance of a finals featuring two Indians teams, Indians 2 will now get the chance to continue their season for at least one more day as they are set to face the AZL Dodgers on Wednesday night at 5 PM in Glendale, Arizona. The winner of that game will then face the winner of the Rangers at Cubs 1 game Wednesday night in a best of three series from Thursday through Saturday.
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