Clip & Dirty: 9/2

The Clippers stretched their win streak to 5 games on the strength of 8 runs in the first three innings and a superb outing from their resident quad-A pitcher, David Huff. The Clippers led the Louisville Bats' by ½ a game heading into the afternoon's game and the 8-0 victory coupled with a Louisville loss leaves the Clippers with a 1 ½ game lead in the IL-West. The good news is that the Clippers win clinched a playoff berth as they now lead the Syracuse Chiefs by 4.5 games with 4 games left. If they maintain their division lead they will play the Durham Bulls, and if the Bats regain the divisional lead then the Clippers will face the Scranton Wilkes/Barre Yankees.

Team Pitching: 0(0) R(ER), 8H, BB, 5K, 69% strikes, 50% GB

David Huff pitched extremely well in his final regular season game for the Clippers. He needed only 85 pitched to get through seven innings. He threw 69% strikes and of the 19 balls that were put in play against him twelve were on the ground for a staggering 63% GB rate. Couple that with 5 strikeouts and only one walk and you have a great outing. He wasn't wasting pitches, he wasn't allowing the ball to get up in the air where the majority of extra-base hits come from (he allowed 0 XBH's) and he missed some bats.

Aaron Laffey and Jess Todd pitched scoreless innings in mop-up duty and the Clippers cruised against a lifeless Toledo offense.

Team Hitting: 8R, 17H, 4XBH, 4BB, 4K, SB, GIDP
The bottom third of the order did some damage tonight with Josh Rodriguez, Damaso Espino and Aregenis Reyes all had 3 hits and went a combined 9-14, 2 2B, 2R, 4RBI. The Clippers managed to bunch their hits together so they put up some crooked numbers in the 2nd and 3rd innings. They capped the scoring with a five run 3rd inning that effectively ended the game. Already up 3-0, the Clippers started the inning off by going 2B, 2B, BB, 1B, FO, 1B, 1B. At this point 4 runs had crossed the plate and the Mud Hens had brought in the bullpen. The Clippers pushed another across on a bases-loaded walk and the inning mercifully ended.

Josh Rodriguez continued his hot hitting by going 3-5 with 2 2B, R, RBI and Damaso Espino knocked in a pair on his 3-5 night also scoring a run. Every Clipper batter had a hit and all but lead off man Jose Constanza (1-4, BB) and Argenis Reyes (3-5) scored a run.

The Clippers continue their series against Toledo at Huntington Park tonight at 7:05pm. Zach McAllister will oppose Andrew Oliver as the Clippers go for their 80th win on the season.

Posted in: Clip and Dirty,Columbus