Marte's sac fly lifts Bats past Indians in ninth, 6-5

Noelvi Marte did not need a home run to make the biggest play at Louisville Slugger Field. One night after a game built on pure power, the Louisville Bats got the cleaner, sharper answer Wednesday afternoon when Marte lifted a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth and Garrett Hampson scored the winning run in a 6-5 escape over the Indianapolis Indians.

That finish mattered because it came from a different kind of performance than the night before. The first two games of the series produced 18 total home runs, including Indianapolis’ 10-8 win Tuesday night and Jhostynxon Garcia’s three-homer outburst. This time, Louisville had to win with response after response, and Marte was in the middle of it from the start. He singled home Francisco Urbaez in the first, then later delivered the final out that turned a tight game into a walk-off.

Indianapolis struck first with two runs in the opening inning, but Ivan Johnson tied it with a 429-foot homer in the second. Michael Toglia kept Louisville close with a blast in the third, only for Davis Wendzel to answer again for Indianapolis with a two-run homer in the third. The Bats kept chasing and kept answering, which was the story of the day. When Garrett Hampson ripped his first triple of the season in the sixth, he drove in two runs and pushed Louisville into its first lead at 5-4.

That lead lasted only until the eighth, when Indianapolis tied it again on an RBI double. From there, Louisville’s bullpen took over the rest of the way. The Bats used six pitchers, and Yunior Marte earned the win after working the final 1.1 innings. Louisville’s relievers struck out 18 Indianapolis batters, the most the Bats had produced in a game all season, while the Indians left 17 runners on base and went 3-for-20 with runners in scoring position. Cam Sanders took the loss.

Hampson finished 2-for-4 with a triple, a double, two RBI and a run scored, while Wendzel drove in three for Indianapolis and homered in back-to-back games. Louisville improved to 24-17; Indianapolis fell to 16-25. For Marte, a 24-year-old right-handed hitter from Cotuí, Dominican Republic, the ninth-inning fly was more than a walk-off. It was the kind of situational win that can steady a Triple-A hitter’s case when the noise turns down and every out starts to matter a little more.