Two straight as Hens top Clippers in series opener

By Jeremy O'Brien

June 22, 2017

Toledo came away with their second straight road win on Thursday, downing division rival Columbus, 5-3. 

Toledo came away with their second straight road win on Thursday, downing division rival Columbus, 5-3.
Like Wednesday, Omar Infante getting on base helped get the scoring going. With a leadoff single in the second, Jason Krizan hit a double to left-center that rolled to the wall and allowed Infante to score from first. Columbus starter Julian Merryweather was able to get Bryan Holaday and Brendan Ryan to ground out, moving Krizan over to third, but Matt den Dekker extended his hitting streak to four with a ground-rule double that scored Krizan to make it 2-0.
The Hens tacked on one more in the next inning with an Efren Navarro solo home run. Navarro, already the team leader in runs batted in, has now homered twice in the past two games. Previously tied with JaCoby Jones for second on the team in home runs, Navarro now stands alone in second with six.
For the third inning in a row, Toledo put a crooked number on the scoreboard in the fourth. Holaday singled to lead off the frame and advanced to second when Ryan reached on an error by Clippers third baseman Giovanny Urshela. Holaday ran to third on a force out that got Ryan at second and scored on a Navarro single.
Ryan scored his second run of the game in the sixth. He reached on a walk, got to second on a den Dekker ground out, and took third on a wild pitch. Jones then ripped a double in the gap to up the score to 5-0.
The Clippers got on the board with two in the sixth when Abraham Almonte hit a solo shot. Boyd struck out Mike Papi, but an Urshela single signaled the end of his outing. Joe Jiménez entered and induced a weak grounder for the second out, but a wild pitch and single by Chris Colabello brought in Urshela to make it 5-2.
Columbus scored again in the seventh on a homer by Eric Stamets, but that would be all they would get.
The Hens try to push their winning streak to three with their 7:05 game on Friday night.