Cannonballs coming: Nick Kingham throws seven shutout innings

— Nick Kingham came through with seven shutout innings to keep Indianapolis alive in its playoff series with Durham. The Indians won, 5-0, and now trails 2-1 in the series. Kingham allowed four hits and three walks, while striking out four. He threw 61 of 95 pitches for strikes. Edgar Santana and Brett McKinney followed with a scoreless inning each. Joey Terdoslavich went 2-3 with a two-run double that opened the scoring. Anderson Feliz also had two hits. Kevin Newman was 1-3.

— Altoona took a 2-0 lead in its series with Bowie by winning, 8-4. Michael Suchy and Elvis Escobar each drove in three runs. Suchy came up a triple short of a cycle and Escobar had a single and a double. Pablo Reyes and Wyatt Mathisen each reached base four times, combining for three hits and five walks. Altoona lost Cole Tucker after one inning. He left to get an x-ray of his hand, which may have been injured when he slid headfirst while getting thrown out trying to steal third. Mitchell Tolman replaced Tucker, going to second while Reyes moved to third. Tolman responded with two spectacular defensive plays.

Alex McRae started for Altoona and gave up four runs over six innings, three of them on a pair of HRs. McRae allowed only four hits and two walks. He threw four roughly average pitches, with a fastball that sat at 93-94 mph in the early innings and 90-93 later, although he occasionally reached back for enough to get his velocity up to the mid-90s. He mixed his pitches well and didn’t have much trouble except for the two longballs.

Yeudy Garcia pitched the seventh and eighth. He looked much better than when I saw him early in the year, with his fastball sitting at 94-95 instead of 90-92, and his command much better. He was able to get ahead in the count enough to use his slider, which is his out pitch. Tate Scioneaux pitched the ninth, relying mainly on a 90-92 mph fastball.