The rundown on Thursday's games:
-P- Indianapolis won a 15-inning marathon over Louisville, 2-1. Matt Hague, who'd fanned four times, won it with a walk-off single following a one-out triple by Alex Presley. Hague, Presley and Starling Marte, who also tripled, all went 2-7. Jose Morales went 3-5 and is now hitting .313. The Indians had only four hits in seven innings off Louisville starter Jeff Francis, then had ten hits off various relievers before Hague finally ended it. Rudy Owens started and went six innings, allowing one run on six hits and one walk, with four Ks. Evan Meek, #FreeDougSlaten, Jose Diaz and Tim Wood followed with nine scoreless innings. Slaten's ERA is now 0.36, which should make for some interesting debate with his opt-out date a week away.
-P- Altoona scored five in the first and then hung on for a 5-4 win over Harrisburg. The Curve had only one hit after the first inning. Shairon Martis started and allowed three runs over six innings. He was followed for one inning each by the since-promoted Duke Welker, the just-promoted Jeff Inman, and Vic Black. Welker allowed nothing and fanned one in what could be his last AA game. Inman gave up a run, allowing a leadoff double and then getting three groundouts. Black survived a 28-pitch 9th to get the save, after loading the bases on a hit and two walks. Brock Holt went 2-4 with a triple. Robbie Grossman went 0-2 with two walks and is now hitless in his last 26 ABs.
-P- Mel Rojas, Jr., got cheated out of a chance to go for a cycle in Bradenton's 6-2 win over Lakeland. Rojas had a double, triple and his second HR in his first three ABs, but the game was "completed early" after six and a half innings. I don't know what that means, but I've seen it before and it's always a case of the game getting called too quickly for it to have been a rain delay. Anyway, Rojas got nearly a quarter of his season's total of 13 extra base hits in this one game and is now batting 291/337/418. Gift Ngoepe went 2-3 and Dan Gamache added his fourth HR. Tyler Waldron had his second straight strong start, allowing two runs, one earned, in seven innings on four hits and no walks. He fanned seven.
-P- In another bizarre performance by its highly combustible bullpen, West Virginia blew a 5-0 lead and dropped a 6-5 game to Kannapolis. The good news was a strong start by Nick Kingham, his third in a row. He allowed only three hits and a walk during six shutout innings, while fanning five. He was followed by Clario Perez, who managed to get charged with six runs, four earned, while allowing only one hit and two walks in 1.2 IP. He also hit two batters and was "assisted" by Robbie Kilcrease, who came in with two on and promptly gave up two walks and a hit batsman to force in the tying and winning runs. Alen Hanson chipped in his 22nd error for good measure. At the plate Hanson went 1-4 with a walk. Willy Garcia went 2-4 and Jose Osuna 2-3.