The Columbus Clippers (26-30) fell to the Louisville Bats (27-31) 3-2 Sunday. The Clippers were held to four hits by Louisville’s pitching staff in the loss.
Kyle Davies (2-3, 4.30 ERA) spun a quality start for Columbus. He went seven innings and allowed three runs on seven hits with no walks and six strikeouts. Tim Crabbe (3-5, 4.60 ERA) earned the win pitching one and one-third innings and only allowed a walk.
Josh Smith (6-1, 3.31 ERA) pitched well, but received no decision. He allowed two runs on four hits with two walks and seven strikeouts in five innings. Jumbo Diaz pitched the ninth for Louisville to close out the win and got save number 13 in 2014.
As they did in the previous three games at Huntington Park the Bats scored first. Four singles turned into a 2-0 lead for Louisville in the bottom of the first.
The Bats threatened again with runners on the corners and no outs in the third, but ran out of the inning. A grounder to Clippers third baseman Giovanny Urshela caught Ruben Gotay in a pickle at third. He was chased back to the base by catcher Luke Carlin and then overran by Felix Perez, who was out for overrunning Gotay. Then Gotay, who thought he was out, was tagged out walking back to the dugout.
The Clippers would rally in the fifth to tie things up. With two outs and the bases empty Jose Ramirez reached on an infield single. Tim Fedroff walked to set up a scoring opportunity for the three-hole hitter Urshela. He delivered with a two-run triple to tie it.
Louisville retook the lead in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Chris Nelson to make it 3-2 Louisville.
Despite the doubleheader the day before, six pitchers were used by the Bats Sunday evening. The five relievers did not allow any runs or any hits.
The second and final game for the quick trip to Louisville begins at 7:05 p.m. Travis Banwart (3-1, 3.43 ERA) hits the mound for the Clippers against Jair Jurrjens (NR) for the Bats.
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