The Columbus Clippers (20-16) beat the Syracuse Chiefs (19-18) 5-4 in the bottom of the ninth Monday afternoon. After blowing a one-run lead in the top half of the inning the Clippers rallied with two outs and won on an Audy Ciriaco double. The win ends the series 3-1 in favor of the Clippers, who went 7-1 on the home stand.
Mark Lowe (1-1, 5.40 ERA) blew the save in the top of the ninth, his first blown save as he was 8-8 in save opportunity and second in the International League in saves. Lowe became the winner when the winning run crossed in the ninth. Daniel Stange (1-2, 6.61 ERA) took the loss with the Clippers rallying off of him with two down.
Neither starter’s record was affected. Travis Banwart (2-0, 3.60 ERA) held Syracuse to three runs on five hits with a pair of walks and two strikeouts. All the runs were allowed on homerun balls off the bats of Jhonatan Solano and Brock Peterson. Ryan Tatusko (1-4, 1.85 ERA) was also quality and did not allow an earned run. Tatusko allowed one unearned run on two hits in six innings with two walks and three strikeouts.
The first runs of the game came on a homer from Solano. A two-run liner made it 2-0 Syracuse in the second inning. Peterson, who scored on the Solano homer, hit a no-doubter to lead off the fourth for Syracuse and give the Chiefs a 3-0 lead. The Clippers got a run back in the fourth on an unearned run in the inning.
The big inning for Columbus was a three-run seventh. Elliot Johnson led off the frame with a triple and scored on a Carlos Moncrief single. Roberto Perez followed up with a single, but “RoboCop” went down with an injury after the single. Luke Carlin replaced Perez for the rest of the game. Columbus manager Chris Tremie said after the game they need to re-evaluate Perez before determining the extent of his injury. Both Moncrief and Carlin scored on groundouts as the Clippers took the lead 4-3.
In the ninth Lowe came in for the save, but couldn’t nail it down. The Chiefs had back-to-back singles with one out to get a runner to second. Down to his last strike with two outs Brian Goodwin tied the game 4-4 on a single that got past first baseman David Cooper.
The Clippers had the bases empty with two outs in the home half of the ninth when they rallied. Carlin hit a single to right to extend the inning in a tough at-bat. Justin Sellers followed up with a walk and set the table for Ciriaco. With two on and two down in the bottom of the ninth Ciriaco won it on a double to center.
Before the game Matt Carson was named the IL Batter of the Week as he went 11-20 (.550) with 10 runs scored, four doubles, two homers, six RBI and two steals in the stretch.
The Clippers hit the road for eight with the two teams they just played at Huntington Park, Rochester and then Syracuse. The Clippers and Red Wings start their four-game set Tuesday at 7:05 p.m. Trevor Bauer (4-0, 1.12 ERA) is on the bump for Columbus against Trevor May (1-3, 4.97 ERA) for Rochester.
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