Sulser, O’Reilly, Ramirez, Stratton and Zastryzny combined for the one-hitter
By Anna Kayser
INDIANAPOLIS – Backed by a pair of home runs by Canaan Smith-Njigba and Malcom Nuñez, the Indianapolis Indians pitching staff tossed a one-hit shutout to defeat the Nashville Sounds in Sunday’s series finale at Victory Field, 4-0.
The one-hit performance marks the fewest hits the Indians (52-60, 19-19) have allowed in a game since Chase De Jong, Austin Brice and Yerry De Los Santos combined on a no-hitter on April 13, 2022 at St. Paul. It is the first one-hitter for Indy since James Marvel, Montana DuRapau and Dovydas Neverauskas accomplished the feat at Syracuse on July 24, 2019.
The lone Sounds (60-52, 20-18) hit came via a fourth-inning infield single off the bat of Keston Hiura. Beau Sulser (W, 1-1) led the pitching staff with six punchouts over 5.0 innings, and John O’Reilly, Yohan Ramirez, Hunter Stratton and Rob Zastryzny followed with 4.0 near-perfect innings to finish.
Indianapolis got on the board in the fourth inning on Smith-Njigba’s 11th home run, a three-run shot to put the game out of reach against Caleb Boushley (L, 7-6). In the eighth, Nuñez then went yard to plate an insurance run, ending his day 2-for-4 with a pair of runs scored.
The Indians begin a six-game road trip at CHS Field, home of the St. Paul Saints, on Tuesday night at 8:07 PM ET. Neither team has named a starting pitcher for the series opener.
Originally posted on milb.com