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Tribe loses doubleheader to Columbus
April 26, 2011 No commentsStarter Alex White allowed just one run and struck out eight over 5.2 innings to earn his first career Triple-A victory and lead Columbus to a 6-1 win in game one, before the Clippers came back from a 5-0 deficit to defeat the Tribe 6-5 with six runs over the fifth and sixth innings on their way to the doubleheader sweep of the Indians on Monday night at Huntington Park in Columbus Ohio.
After serving up a two-out solo home run to Indians LF Alex Presley in the first inning, White went on to toss five scoreless innings, striking out at least one batter in each frame, including multiple punchouts in the third and fifth
While White shut down the Tribe, the Clippers offense gave him an early lead with five runs over the first three innings, including two in the first, two in the second and one more in the third.
DH Cord Phelps and 3B Lonnie Chisenhall began the first inning rally with back-to-back one out walks, before moving to second and third on a single by LF Chad Huffman and coming around to score on a base hit by 1B Travis Buck.
Columbus continued to add to their lead in the bottom of the second when SS Luis Valbuena drove in two runs with a line drive double to left.
Finally, Huffman capped the scoring for the Clippers in the fifth, when he belted his team best fifth home run over the wall in center to give Columbus a 6-1 advantage.
Indians starter Sean Gallagher suffered the loss in game one to fall to 0-3 on the season after allowing five runs on five hits and five walks in just 3.2 innings.
In game two it was the Clippers offense that led the way to victory, as Columbus plated six runs over the fifth and sixth frames to come all the way back from a 5-0 hole and defeat the Tribe 6-5.
After giving the Tribe the early lead in game one, Presley repeated the feat in game two as he gave the Indians a 1-0 advantage by plating RF Corey Wimberly with a sacrifice fly. Presley then came through with another clutch RBI in the third inning as he plated SS Pedro Ciriaco with a two-out infield single to give the Tribe a 3-0 lead.
Then after driving in two of the Tribe’s first three scores, Presley would come around to score a run of his own after he came through with another two-out base hit in the fifth and came home on a two-run double by 2B Chase d’Arnaud.
Leading the way with the hit of night was Clippers RF Jordan Brown, who after Columbus loaded the bases by way of walks to C Paul Phillips and Phelps and a single by Valbuena, launched a grand slam to left field to pull the Clippers to with-in one at 5-4.
After Brown drew the Clippers to with-in one in the fifth, an error and hit by pitch to lead off the sixth set the stage for Valbuena and Carrera, who came through with back-to-back run scoring singles to give Columbus their first lead of the game at 6-5.
Despite not figuring in the final decision, Indians starter Garrett Olson was brilliant in his short stint as he struck out five of the eight batters he faced over 2.2 scoreless innings of work. Columbus starter and former Indians hurler Joe Martinez also did not figure in the final decision, despite allowing three runs on four hits over 3.2 frames.
Columbus reliever Jensen Lewis allowed just one hit in an inning of relief to earn the victory and improve to 2-0 on the season, while fellow reliever Josh Judy pitched a perfect ninth to notch his second save. Tribe reliever Chris Leroux suffered the loss to fall to 2-1 after allowing two runs despite not surrendering a hit.
The doubleheader defeat drops the Indians to 5-14 on the season, while the Clippers improve to 13-5 with the two victories. The wins for Columbus gives them seven straight over the Indians this season and nine consecutive overall dating back to last season.
The Indians now return home for an eight-game road trip beginning tonight when they take on the Norfolk Tides at 7:05 p.m. LHP Justin Wilson is expected to get the start for Indianapolis, while RHP Steve Johnson is the probable starter for Norfolk.
Posted by Brian Scott in Indianapolis Indians, Local Sports

