Clippings 6-15-09

The Clippers meet Rochester in the opener of a four-game set tonight at 7:05pm.

* Tonight is Dime-A-Dog Night at Huntington Park. Sugardale hot dogs for ten cents each… there is nothing better.

* Clippers catcher Wyatt Toregas returned to the lineup Sunday in fine form. He homered off Louisville’s Sam LeCure in his first at-bat. Toregas missed two games after taking a foul ball off his right hand. Toregas is now the hottest Clippers hitter, batting .421 (8-for-19) in his last six games.

* The Clippers offense is struggling overall. Michael Aubrey is 4-for-23 (.174), Jordan Brown is 3-for-18 (.167), Andy Marte is 4-for-19 (.211) and Michael Brantley is 3-for-19 (.158) over the last five games. Brantley had a 19 game stretch in which he batted .333 before the recent slide.

* Aaron Laffey could be Columbus-bound this week. He is scheduled to pitch three innings on Thursday, likely with the Clippers. He suffered a strained right oblique muscle and was placed on the DL back on May 23rd.

* We are still waiting on the “official” word that Jake Westbrook will pitch Wednesday. Westbrook has thrown seven scoreless innings over two starts with Akron. Torey Lovullo has said he’ll go about five innings or eighty pitches…unless there has been a setback behind the scenes.

* Kirk Saarloos is slated to make his first start since June 5th. He was skipped in the rotation after allowing eight runs, four earned in only two innings against Charlotte. Saarloos is 3-7 with a 5.63 ERA (11 starts) heading into tonight vs. Rochester.

* Ryan Mitchell, my broadcast partner, paid a visit to the “Sandwiches on Deck” stand in the right field corner at Huntington Park. He returned with this gigantic ice cream sundae in a clipper ship…

That’s all for now… meeting adjourned.