Columbus clips Toledo in series opener

TOLEDO, OH.: Matt Manning settled in nicely after a tough beginning to his fifth Mud Hens appearance of the season, but Toledo couldn’t crawl out of an early hole in a 5-3 setback to the Columbus Clippers on Friday evening at Fifth Third Field.

The Clippers came out swinging with three consecutive hits and a three-run frame to open the game opposite Manning. Will Benson and Tyler Freeman singled in advance of Richie Palacios, who promptly doubled in Benson for the first run of the game. Freeman came in on an RBI groundout from Will Brennan. A sacrifice fly from Gabriel Arias plated Palacios to finish off the stanza.

The Mud Hens got a run back on a sacrifice fly from Jamie Westbrook in the second, enabling Josh Lester to touch up and trim the deficit to 3-1 in favor of Columbus.

Lester went 2-4 at the dish, pushing his hitting streak to seven straight contests and his on-base streak to nine in the process. He is swatting .357 (10-28) with three multi-hit efforts as part of his current hit streak.

Benson and Freeman once again got on base to open the third, with Benson coming across on a double play ball hit into by Palacios to bump the lead to 4-1.

Benson and Freeman each contributed in a big way with 3-5 efforts at the top of the Clippers order. Oscar Mercado also swung his bat at a 3-4 clip.

Manning (0-1) went 4 and 1/3’s innings on the bump for Toledo, surrendering seven hits, four earned runs, a walk, and mixing in four punch outs while being saddled with the loss.

Spencer Torkelson didn’t waste much time getting involved offensively in his return to the Mud Hens lineup. His two-out RBI knock in the bottom half of the third brought in Jack Lopez to bring Toledo within 4-2. He finished the evening 1-4.

Clippers starter Tanner Tully didn’t factor in the decision, yielding five hits and two runs over four frames of work.

Columbus added another tally courtesy of a sacrifice fly from David Fry in the sixth to increase its advantage to 5-2.

Kerry Carpenter was having a quiet evening before he took Justin Garza deep in the ninth for his fourth Triple-A homer. The blast was his 26th of the season, moving him back into a tie for first in all of Minor League Baseball.

Nick Mikolajchak (4-2) earned the win for Columbus, working around a hit over six outs. Kevin Kelly kept the Mud Hens off the board in the seventh and the eighth before Garza came in to lock up his third save of the year.

Miguel Del Pozo, Luis Castillo, and Miguel Diaz all twirled scoreless innings out of the Toledo bullpen.

NEXT UP: The middle contest of the Mud Hens set against the Clippers will take place on Saturday evening at 7:05 p.m.