Guardians Baseball Insider

June 23, 2011

Not every stellar pitching performance is a thing of beauty. Sometimes, a pitching staff keeps every runner from crossing the plate despite letting many of them on the basepaths. They just buckle down and get the job done, often with some assistance from the seven men behind them. Such an instance occurred nine years ago today in Toledo.

Clippers starter Jeanmar Gomez pitched eight shutout innings. As you can guess by the fact that he lasted that long in a minor league game, it was a highly efficient outing. He needed only 96 pitches (57 of them strikes) to get 24 men out, He allowed nine baserunners (five hits and four walks). A quartet of double players lowered his batters faced total to 29 men (that;s a little over 3.3 pitches per plate appearance). While he struggled somewhat in the later innings, it is important to point out his first two frames were perfect.

Nick Hagadone came in to pitch the ninth and finished out the combined shutout despite loading the bases (two singles and a walk, there was also a balk, but the two-out walk rendered it irrelevant).

The Clippers won the game comfortably behind a six-run offensive effort that included a multi-hit, multi-run effort from leadoff hitter CF Ezequiel Carrera and a pair of RBI from 3B Lonnie Chisenhall. Other notable names from the Columbus lineup include DH Jason Kipnis and 2B Luis Valbuena.

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Photo: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports