Guardians Baseball Insider

July 30, 2014 Columbus Clippers

Heading back in time to 2014, July 30th was a very good day for the Clip Show with strong performances from some future MLB All-Stars as well as some names that have already been lost to history.

To begin, Tyler Cloyd made the start for the Clippers. He already had two MLB seasons in the book with Philadelphia before being claimed off waivers by the Indians in 2013, then resigned as a free agent heading into 2014. While he never made it to the big leagues with Cleveland, this was a successful AAA season for Cloyd as he ultimately made 26 starts with a 3.89 ERA before moving to Korea and pitching for the Samsung Lions in 2015.

In this game, however, he would strike out one in a perfect first, then two more in the second on his way to six total in nine innings. In the bottom of the first, the Clippers backed up their starter with two runs. Tyler Holt singled, moved up when Francisco Lindor was safe on an error, then Jesus Aguilar brought them both home with a double. In the third, they added another pair as Holt doubled and came home on a Giovanny Urshela homer.

Things stayed 4-0 Columbus over Louisville for three more innings, but the Clippers put things away in the seventh. Luke Carlin lead things off with a solo home run and was followed by a Lindor walk and Aguilar two run shot. The unwalkable Urshela then walked and moved to third when Carlos Moncried doubled. Two more walks and a sac fly brought home another pair of runs to push the score to 9-0 with the Bats still baserunnerless.

In the eighth, it was the same cast of characters putting up another crooked number. Holt and Aguilar walked ahead of Urshela who singled to load the bases. Moncrief then doubled to score two more, then Audy Ciriaco singled to finish things off with two more runs.

With a 13 run lead and perfect game intact, Cloyd worked a full count against the first batter in the ninth before hitting Donnie Murphy with a pitch. While he lost his perfect game, Cloyd induced a Tucker Barnhart double play to manage to face the minimum through his complete game no hitter.

Despite the nearly perfect game and former MLB experience, Cloyd never got the call-up to Cleveland. He did come back from Korea to join the Yankees in 2016, then played in indy ball before reaching the big leagues with Seattle again in 2017 for just one inning, then finished his MLB career in Miami in 2018. Cloyd’s most recent update was playing with another independent team in 2019.