Albuquerque - Starter Josh Lindblom held steady in his Triple-A debut and the Albuquerque Isotopes (41-39) made a winner out of the right-hander with a 3-2 victory over the Memphis Redbirds (37-42) Thursday night at Isotopes Park.Albuquerque - Starter Josh Lindblom held steady in his Triple-A debut and the Albuquerque Isotopes (41-39) made a winner out of the right-hander with a 3-2 victory over the Memphis Redbirds (37-42) Thursday night at Isotopes Park.
Lindblom (1-0), who was promoted to Albuquerque on June 25 after appearing in 14 games for Double-A Chattanooga, recorded his longest outing of the season with six innings. The highly touted prospect allowed just three hits and one run while striking out four, including fanning the side in the top of the second, en route to his first Triple-A victory.
Albuquerque provided just enough offense, all of which arrived in the bottom of the fifth. For the second night in a row the ‘Topes cashed in with two outs using three straight RBI singles to claim a 3-1 lead.  
A.J. Ellis started the inning with a walk before moving to second on a sacrifice bunt courtesy of Lindblom.  After Tony Abreu grounded out, Chin-Lung Hu took first on a misplayed grounder to Brett Wallace to give Albuquerque runners on the corners. Blake DeWitt proceeded to set off a chain reaction, slashing a single to right to plate Ellis and set up runners on the corners. Jamie Hoffmann followed suit, legging out an infield hit to push across the go-ahead run in Hu. Jason Repko capped the scoring with a single of his own to send home DeWitt in what would become a crucial run. Evan MacLane (3-8) was saddled with the loss, but the error that prolonged the inning led to all three of the runs being unearned.
After Lindblom’s departure in the sixth, Erick Threets continued his bullpen brilliance going two scoreless innings to hold the lead in place. Memphis pushed it to the wire, however, knocking two singles off closer Scott Strickland (15) to start the ninth. The Redbirds managed a run on a fielder’s choice, but Strickland secured his 15th save with a fly out and an Ellis sliding splits catch in foul territory for the final two outs with two aboard.
The lone Lindblom run conceded was a Nick Stavinoha solo home run to lead off the top of the fourth inning that gave Memphis a quick 1-0 advantage. Memphis sandwiched two sticky dilemmas in between as Lindblom began both the third and the fifth with a single and a walk.  After sac bunts in both predicaments moved the runners over, Lindblom buckled down retiring the next two batters and utilizing some austere Albuquerque defense to wiggle out of both jams.
Albuquerque looks for a three-game series sweep tomorrow behind right-hander Giancarlo Alvardo (5-6, 3.62), who will face Memphis righty Adam Ottavino (0-9, 5.30 ERA) in a 7:05 PM from Isotopes Park. 

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