Home miseries continue with loss to Mud Hens
Huntington Park used to be a place where International League teams, no matter where they stood in the standings, would come to be beaten up with regularity by the Clippers.
This season, though, it has been goodbye, Columbus, in its own ballpark.
Toledo scored two runs in the second inning and once in the third and fourth to bang out a 5-3 victory over the Clippers on Thursday night before a crowd of 10,100.
Columbus (37-35) is 16-20 at home, and only Syracuse (11-18) and Louisville (1622) were worse in the 14-team league before Thursday night’s games.
To a man, the players talk about how much they appreciate the ballpark and fans. Manager Chris Tremie has said more than once that he expects the club to turn around its home record.
The Clippers are playing much better baseball despite the continuing rash of roster moves: They have six victories in their past eight games. There have been 99 moves.
One good sign was the return of outfielder Abraham Almonte to the lineup after he had missed the previous seven games. He has been on an injuryrehabilitation stay from Cleveland in trying to come back from a strained right biceps.
Almonte led off the sixth with a home run to left, and he hustled his way to a double in the seventh when a pop-up landed between the shortstop and third baseman in short left field.
“We DH’d him tonight to get him some at-bats, and he’s going to continue to work on his program," Tremie said of Almonte. “It’s precautionary. We’re going to DH him again. We want to make sure we do the right thing by him and make sure he’s ready. He’s getting really close."
Almonte went into the trainer’s room after eating a post-game dinner and was not available for comment.
Catcher Adam Moore took himself out of the game in the top of the sixth inning with what Tremie described as soreness.
Erik Kratz came on to catch and led off the seventh with a home run. He hit two home runs and drove in four runs in a 9-7 victory at Louisville on Wednesday.
In all, though, it was a sluggish night for the Clippers.
“Today is the first day of the second half, and we’re in a much better spot than we were three weeks ago," Tremie said. “We’ll come back and get after it tomorrow."
Columbus got after it with its checkbook as it tries to win a fourthstraight West Division championship. On Sunday, the club signed 35-year-old veteran starting pitcher Jarrett Grube, who in 2015 was instrumental in the Clippers' stretch run as they won the Governors’ Cup.