Columbus’ Cloyd no-hits Bats in series opener
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Of the 88 pitches Columbus right-hander Tyler Cloyd threw in his no-hitter against the Louisville Bats on Wednesday night, only one kept him from perfection.
Cloyd, 27, didn’t allow a base runner until the ninth inning, when leadoff batter Donnie Murphy was struck on the hand. Cloyd still faced just 27 batters, the minimum, as Tucker Barnhart hit into a double play and Hernan Iribarren lined out to second baseman Audy Ciriaco to end the game, a 13-0 Clippers victory over the Louisville Bats before 10,100 at Huntington Park.
Cloyd (9-5, 3.91 ERA) struck out six in the opener to a three-game series.
It marked the fifth time Louisville has been no-hit. The Bats were last no-hit by the Gwinnett Braves’ Todd Redmond on May 28, 2010, at Louisville Slugger Field.
The Clippers supplied plenty of support for Cloyd, rolling up 13 runs on 12 hits. Left-hander Scott Diamond (4-8, 6.05) gave up six runs and seven hits, including home runs to Giovanny Urshela and Luke Carlin in 61/3 innings.
The Bats will send right-hander Dylan Axelrod (6-8, 4.52) against right-hander Josh Tomlin (2-1, 2.06) at 7:05 p.m. Thursday.