Indianapolis powers past Iowa with seven homers in 11-8 win

What opened as a sharp pitchers' duel at Principal Park unraveled into a home run derby, and Indianapolis left Des Moines with the better ending. The Indians beat Iowa 11-8 on Thursday night after a seven-run sixth inning flipped the game from a 2-1 struggle into a slugfest that featured seven homers and 15 extra-base hits.

The sixth inning changed everything. Indianapolis, which trailed 2-1, strung together its biggest burst of the night and never let Iowa fully back in front. Dominic Fletcher delivered the decisive blow in that frame, turning on a Christian Roa pitch with one runner aboard for a homer that helped blow the game open. Keiner Delgado and Jhostynxon Garcia also went deep, and the three homers from that trio accounted for eight RBI in a lineup that suddenly looked impossible to pitch around.

Iowa answered in kind, but only enough to keep the final score respectable. The Cubs hit four homers overall, including a solo shot by Jonathon Long and sixth-inning blasts from Chas McCormick, Christian Bethancourt and Casey Opitz. Iowa scored five runs in the bottom of the sixth on three homers, but Indianapolis had already done enough damage to seize control of the game’s identity. After the fireworks, the Indians tacked on two more runs in the seventh and another in the eighth to build an 11-7 cushion before Iowa scored once in the ninth.

Khristian Curtis was the one who held the line long enough for the bats to separate the game. The Indianapolis starter earned the win to improve to 2-0, striking out 11 over 87 pitches. Daniel Zulueta took the loss for Iowa, and the Indians' offense made sure the sixth-inning chaos worked in their favor rather than theirs.

Indianapolis finished with 15 hits to Iowa’s 13 in a game that lasted 3 hours, 17 minutes before 5,874 at Principal Park. The win was also a notable one in the backdrop of the series: Iowa had taken the first two games, 13-7 on June 16 and 6-5 in walk-off fashion on June 17, making Thursday the third straight meeting with at least 11 total runs. After the first few innings suggested finesse, the final six made clear this series had turned into a race to the next big swing.