The Columbus Clippers (67-58) stunned the Lehigh Valley IronPigs (58-67) 6-5 in the 10th inning Wednesday night. The bullpen was fantastic for the Clippers authoring seven consecutive scoreless innings before former Clipper Russ Canzler broke a 4-4 tie with a homer off the batter’s eye in center. The Clippers authored a two-out two-run rally to beat the IronPigs in the bottom half.
Neither starter factored into the decision. Gabriel Arias (6-2, 3.65 ERA) broke the Clippers streak of seven quality starts with a short night. He allowed four runs, one earned, in two innings on three hits with three walks and one strikeout. Jason Marquis (1-0, 3.07 ERA) went five innings and allowed four runs on eight hits with two walks and five strikeouts.
The Phillies’ top prospect, Maikel Franco, showed off the power the organization expects from him in the first. Franco crushed an Arias offering more than 400 feet to left and gave the IronPigs a 1-0 lead.
He was back at it in the second. With a run already in and the bases loaded with two outs Franco smacked a two-run single and increased the Lehigh Valley lead to four.
The Clippers scored a pair of runs on a unique play in the third. Singles by Dusty Brown and Francisco Lindor plus a walk by Elliot Johnson had the bases loaded with no outs. Jesus Aguilar hit a drive to center and all three runners tagged. The throw went to second and Johnson headed back to first. No one was covering first and the IronPigs first baseman Canzler beat Johnson on a race to the bag. On the doubleplay Lindor scored.
The Clippers then tied it in the fourth. Matt Carson singled to start the inning and James Ramsey hit a ball high to right that turned into an RBI triple. Chris Wallace tied it on an RBI single to left.
The tie was broken in the 10th by Canzler’s mammoth shot. It was his 12th homer of the season.
The Clippers got runners to second and third on a two-out single by Carson and double by Ramsey. Wallace hit a ball into play that was a two-run error committed by Lehigh Valley third baseman Cesar Hernandez.
The loss was the first walk-off loss suffered by the IronPigs in 2014.
The series finale is Thursday at Huntington Park. Kyle Davies (7-7, 3.73 ERA) is on the mound for Columbus against Brad Lincoln (6-8, 4.69 ERA) and the IronPigs at 7:05 p.m.
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