Clip & Dirty: 5/17

Carlos Santana (2/2, 2HR, 2BB, 5RBI) continued to lay waste to the International League. The Clippers themselves haven’t been too much worse as they went into last night tied for the best record in the IL with Durham and broke that tie following their 5-1 win over the Bulls. Standing at 24-15 they have a 3 game lead in the IL West.

Team Hitting: 5R, 6H, 2XBH, 5BB

There comes a time in a minor league players’ progression where you simply run out of superlatives and adjectives to describe a prospects play. That time is well overdue for Santana. We can go to the box scores each morning and fully expect to see his league leading .461 OBP to increase or his team-leading HR, RBI, BB, or TB totals to continue to increase. I have been expecting that for the last month and he has delivered night-in and night-out. Simply put, June cannot get here quick enough.

For the sake of mentioning a few more players: others that scratched the box score were Michael Brantley (1/3, BB, R) and Jose Constanza (2/4, R). Jason Donald was pulled after 2 AB’s presumably because of the injury to Asdrubal Cabrera and impending call-up to the Indians.

Team Pitching: 1(1) R(ER), 9H, 1BB, 7SO, 65% strikes

In Mike Gosling’s penultimate start before his retirement, he pitched beautifully. He went 6.1IP, 5H, 1BB, 5SO. He threw 63% strikes, induced nearly twice as many grounders as fly balls and generally avoided trouble all night long against the IL’s most potent offense. His final start should come over the weekend and will be a fond farewell to a legitimate professional and fine ball player.

Vinnie Pestano avoided any damage despite giving up a pair of hits in his short 2-out outing. He did rack up another strikeout giving him 6 in only 2.2IP this year. Josh Judy worked a perfect 8th in his IL debut and handed the ball to Clippers’ closer: Jess Todd. Todd continued his ugly-yet-effective ways by yielding a run on 2 hits, but got the job done and insured that gosling got the W on the night.

The Clippers head to Gwinnett to kick-off an 8-game road trip and will trust Jeanmar Gomez to continue their winning ways. Expect to see Anderson Hernandez and Brian Bixler up the middle as Jason Donald will be with the big boys and hopefully blazing a path for a certain soon-to-be promoted catcher at AAA.

Posted in: Clip and Dirty,Columbus