The Indianapolis Indians returned home to Victory Field last night after a 10 game road trip that saw the Indians go 4-6 over that span despite taking two out of three from then IL West Division leading Louisville to start the road trip before moving on and splitting a four game series with Toledo. The Tribe ended the swing with a three game set against Columbus and lost all three games against the current division leader and have lost nine in a row to the Clippers dating back to last season.

The home cooking was just what the doctor ordered as Indians catcher Jason Jaramillo hit his first career grand slam in the sixth inning to help propel the Tribe to an 8-5 win over the visiting Norfolk Tides to begin the three game series and seven game home stand.

Indianapolis would score first as LF Alex Presley drove in CF Gorkys Hernandez with an RBI single to take a 1-0 lead after three innings.

The Tides would come right back with a big fourth inning as Tides SS Nick Green hit a 2 run double followed by back-to-back RBI singles by catcher Craig Tatum and RF Tyler Henson that gave Norfolk a 4-1 lead.

Andrew Lambo led off the home half of the fourth inning for Indianapolis with his first home run of the season to right field off of Tides starter Chris George to make it a 4-2 game after four innings.

However, Norfolk would get that run back in the top of the 5^th inning as Tides DH Ryan Adams doubled to lead off the inning and came home on a Nolan Reimold grounder as Reimold beat the pivot throw by Tribe 2B Chase d’Arnaud trying to turn what would have been an inning ending double play to regain the 3 run lead at 5-2.

It stayed that way until the bottom of the sixth inning as Tribe 1B Matt Hague led off the inning with a single followed by a Lambo walk and a single by 3B Josh Harrison to load the bases with nobody out. That set up Jaramillo who ended George’s chance for the win by taking a George offering over the wall in deep left field for the grand slam and a 6-5 Indians lead. Troy Patton would enter the game in relief of George for Norfolk but would have problems of his own in the Indians sixth as the first batter he faced was Tribe SS Pedro Ciriaco who promptly doubled to left and later came home when DH Corey Wimberly grounded out. Hernandez, who had reached base after being hit by a Patton pitch, would cap off the Tribe scoring by coming home after a d’Arnaud third strike was dropped by Tides catcher Craig Tatum and Hernandez scored as Tatum retired d’Arnaud at first.

The Tribe bullpen would close things out for starter Justin Wilson as Cesar Valdez pitched a scoreless seventh striking out two and Daniel Moskos recorded his first save of the season pitching the eighth and ninth innings limiting Norfolk to just one hit while striking out two.

Justin Wilson picked up the win for Indianapolis and improved his record to 2-1 as the left hander gave up five runs on five hits but thanks to two Indianapolis errors, none of the runs were earned. Wilson struck out four while walking three in six innings of work.

Norfolk starter George took the loss giving up six runs on ten hits in five innings of work to fall to 0-2 for the season.

The Indians and Tides continue their four-game series on today in an afternoon matinee set to start at 1:05 p.m. LHP Michael Ballard is scheduled to start for Norfolk, while RHP Brad Lincoln is expected to get the nod for Indianapolis.

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