Williams homers, extends hit streak as Indians beat Bats 9-5

Alika Williams keeps looking less like a hot week and more like a player forcing a longer conversation. His three-run homer to deep left field in the second inning, a 415-foot shot, helped Indianapolis bury Louisville early and finish its six-game homestand with a 9-5 win Sunday at Victory Field.

The blast was Williams’ first home run of the season, but it came with the kind of contact quality that changes how a Triple-A lineup is read. He extended his hitting streak to 10 games and entered the day batting .462 with a 1.230 OPS, production that gives the Pirates’ front office a real marker to weigh as it watches one of its more reliable bats stack consistent at-bats in Indianapolis.

The Indians turned the game with a five-run second inning and never let Louisville fully back in. Wilber Dotel earned the win by working 5.2 innings and allowing two earned runs on six hits, three walks and five strikeouts. Chase Petty took the loss after giving up five runs on eight hits in four innings, and Louisville spent most of the afternoon chasing a deficit that grew beyond a single inning’s reach.

Indianapolis added an unearned run in the sixth, then Ronny Simon delivered the knockout swing with a bases-clearing double in the eighth to make it 9-2. Louisville answered once more when JJ Bleday hit a three-run homer in the ninth, but by then the outcome was settled and the Indians had already secured the series finale.

The win lifted Indianapolis to 4-11 and gave the club a strong finish to a homestand that included its first home win of 2026, a 5-0 shutout over Louisville on April 8, and a wild 8-5 loss Saturday in a game featuring nine combined errors, the most in an Indians game since at least 2005. Sunday’s result also snapped Louisville’s three-game run in the series and closed out a six-game set that doubled as the club’s Prospects Weekend showcase.

For Indianapolis, the bigger story is that Williams is pairing power with pace. A hitter who can extend rallies, drive the ball to the opposite gap and stay on base for 10 straight games gives the lineup a different shape, and that kind of stability is exactly what a Triple-A roster is built to produce when the call-up questions start to sharpen.