Leo: Can you feel the magic (number)?

The Clippers used a Luis Valbuena grand slam (his second this season) to beat Pawtucket 5-2 Tuesday night in Rhode Island. That win coupled with an Indianapolis loss (their third straight) has dropped the Clippers “magic number” to six. Any combination of six Clippers wins or Indy losses and the Clippers will be West Division champs for the first time since 2004.

Here are some other valuable nuggets of baseball minutia that I like to call “Clippings”:

* Valbuena’s grand slam on Tuesday was the Clippers fifth grand salami of the year.

* Corey Kluber pitched 6.2 innings on Tuesday without allowing a hit, his longest hitless stretch. He was pulled from the game after walking a pair of batters in the seventh.

* The Durham Bulls has increased their South Division lead over Gwinnett to four games. It is becoming more likely that the Clippers and Bulls could meet in the opening round of the playoffs, a rematch of last season’s Governors Cup Championship.

* Chad Huffman’s 13-game hitting streak was snapped on Monday. The streak tied Huffman’s career best and he batted .535 (23-for-42) while earning International League Player of the Week and Cleveland Indians Minor League Player of the Week honors. In the 18 games prior to his streak, Huffman was 3-for-55.

* The Clippers added OF Shelley Duncan to the roster Tuesday, while OF Tim Fedroff was sent to Akron.

* The first 1500 kids (ages 12 and under) to attend Saturday’s game will receive a chest protector backpack… take a look, very cool.

* Columbus is currently 79-46, the best record in Triple-A baseball. The mark of 33 games over .500 is a season-high.

Who is the “Clipper of the Year”

* Jerad Head leads the Clippers with 23 HR and his .530 slugging percentage ranks third in the league.

* Luis Valbuena leads the Clippers with a .299 average and 71 RBI.

* Jeanmar Gomez leads the club and is second in the league with ten wins and a 2.45 ERA.

Will you be there?

* The Clippers return home to begin a four-game series against Buffalo starting on Saturday night. Click here to see the remaining promotions for the regular season.

I’m told playoff tickets will be available to the general public VERY soon.

That’s all for now. See you at the park!