Offensive woes result in sixth straight defeat
Lately, the Clippers have the feel of a sailing ship stuck in mid-ocean for two weeks without the hint of a breeze in the air.
The team lost a sixth straight game on Tuesday night, a 4-1 decision to the Toledo Mud Hens at Huntington Park that offered little excitement for the crowd of 8,185.
Four Toledo pitchers limited the suddenly struggling Columbus offense to four hits. Seventh-inning doubles by James Ramsey and Audy Ciriaco accounted for the only run the Clippers scored in a third consecutive loss to the Mud Hens that also left them under .500 at 26-27.
“It happens at the big-league level,” Ramsey said of the team slump. “I was talking about it to somebody last night. I said, ‘This team is so good that you know that this here, right now, is temporary.’
“You’ve got $200 million teams that go on losing streaks. That shows you why the game is so mental. You can have all the ability that you want. But if you can’t stay consistent and keep a clear mind when you’re out there, that’s when things can go wrong.”
The Clippers were in first place in the West Division when the parent Cleveland Indians purchased the contract of staff ace Shaun Marcum. The Indians also took veteran Bruce Chen out of the Columbus rotation last month.
“They obviously had a good presence in the clubhouse,” manager Chris Tremie said. “They were veteran guys, and you can’t say enough about how they performed while they were here.
“But we’ve got to keep working. We are in a little bit of a rut. It’s a long season. We’ve just got to find our way back.”
The Clippers’ Michael Roth (5-2) gave up a first-inning run on a Steven Moya single and pitched shutout baseball for the next five innings with the help of his defense.
“We’re playing good defense,” Tremie said. “Guys are still hustling. We just haven’t been able to put it all together recently. It’s 10 days. We played really good the two weeks prior to that.”
Jefry Marte led off the seventh inning with a home run against Roth, and Xavier Avery added a sacrifice fly in the inning. Mike Hessman homered off Jeff Manship with one out in the eighth to match Ciriaco’s RBI double.
Ross Seaton (1-1) allowed two hits and no runs over the first six innings to earn his first triple-A win. He was pitching at low-Class A West Michigan until late May.
The Clippers played without outfielder Tyler Holt, who suffered a left hamstring injury in the second game of Monday night’s doubleheader loss to the Mud Hens.