Clip & Dirty: 4/27

Yohan Pino and the Columbus Clippers got into an early hole after some rough defense and a Stefan Gartrell homer  but them behind 4-0 in the first. The Clippers responded by scoring 12 runs on 15 hits over the next 3 innings and never looked back. Pino picked up the win as the Clippers bats and continued bullpen excellence did the heavy lifting en route to a 12-7 win over the Knights.

Team Pitching: 7(4) R(ER), 8H, 2BB, 11K, 64.5% K's

Pino continues to impress with each start and may prove to be a fairly worthwhile acquisition in addition to our cap relief gained from the Carl Pavano trade last season. He is throwing lots of strikes, is inducing GB's at an above-average rate, and is still keeping his K/BB (4.5) ratio and K/9 (9.0) levels very high. These are things that we should like as Clippers fans and love as prospect nerds. Frank Herrmann, a rehabbing Hector Ambriz and Saul Rivera finished what Pino started and combined for a relatively uneventful 3 2/3 innings to mop things up.

I think at this point, Pino has put himself in line to get the first spot start call up in Cleveland. He is less of a long-term prospect so there are no service-time issues like Rondon and he is pitching better than Carrasco and Gomez. Lewis could sneak in there if the Tribe is in a pinch and Pino just went, but I think Yohan's the guy at this point.

Team Hitting: 19H, 4XBH, 3BB, 12 R

The hitting summary tonight: a lot. Can I just leave it at that? No? Ok, I'm going to forgo analysis and just list impressive factoids about the game:

• Seven of the nine starters had a multi-hit game.
• Twenty two men reached base safely. Twenty of them in the first five innings.
• Shelley Duncan had the opportunity to leave 7 runners on base by the 3rd inning.
• The Clippers still went 9-15 with RISP.
• All four XBH's occurred in the 1st inning, and six singles occurred in the 2nd. Both innings led to 5 runs.
• Jason Donald went 4-4 with a BB, SB, HR, 3RBI and is proving that he may well be an upgrade over the Valbuena/Grudzielanek combo that is currently terrorizing opposing pitchers in the Majors.
• Jason Donald is OPSing better than .900 and is hopefully regaining his career offensive prowess after a disappointing 2009. Before last year, he OPSed above 850 at every level he was at in both '07 and '08.
• Carlos Santana: 2-3, 2BB, 2R, 2RBI, SB, 1.106 OPS. Whatever.

The Clippers are 12-8 and remain tied for 1st in the IL West with Toledo. Josh Tomlin will go for the Clippers at an 11:35am start and look to take a 2-0 series lead over the Knights.