Sweep, On to Toledo, Colome Back

Wrap, Box

Nate Karns pitched very well; Vince Belnome hit a home run; Kirby Yates got his 13th save; 12,000 fans. Great day at the park.

Season: 30-21; Trip: 4-0

Wrap, Box

Mike Montgomery continued to show the world how much he is developing. In this case a solid 7 inning, 2 hit, 94 pitch win. Meanwhile Jeff Beliveau is becoming a closer-in-waiting with his 4th save when the Clippers showed some life in the 9th. His ERA remains at 0.00.

On the other hand, inept fielding by the Clippers themselves killed any chance they could stay in the game. Note that there were only 2 earned runs. Mikie Mahtook did not wait for any gifts. His single, double, and home run accounted for all but one of the runs (Jerry Sands’ single was the other.

Outside the game —

• Alex Colome comes off his 50-game suspension today and will start against Toledo. He had three “rehab” starts with the Charlotte (Port Charlotte, Florida) Stone Crabs: 11 innings, ERA-1.64; WHIP-1.091. No word (that I’ve heard yet) on what the Bulls will do to the rotation. If anyone heard anything, please chime in.
• I noticed that Kevin Kiermaier was pulled late in the game on Saturday evening and did not play yesterday. Unlikely to be anything significant, and probably mentioned on radio. If someone did hear an explanation, please pass it on.

Matchup

The Toledo Mud Hens are just down the road from their parent club, the Detroit Tigers. The second-most famous club in minor league baseball, they have not done all that well in recent years. Is that because they are so close to parent club and it's just easy to move folks around?

For those who are into those things, note that the Mud Hens' Pythagorean Expectation won-loss is quite different (and much better) than their actual won-loss. That is, they should be a .500 team based on their runs scored and runs allowed record, but they are not. The most typical explanation for that is: relief pitching and bad luck leading to losses in close games. But the PE observation is based on thousands of games over decades of baseball. For our purposes, let's just say that it looks like the Mud Hens are a better ball club than their record indicates.