Article published September 05, 2009
Hessman’s big night ends with loss
Mud Hens catcher Keith Hernandez provides autographs for, from left, Jack Hubay, 11, Trenton Haynes, 10, and Kurtis Lazur, 13, all of Toledo, at Fifth Third Field Friday night.
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THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH
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By JOHN WAGNER
BLADE SPORTS WRITER
Columbus rained on the parade of the Mud Hens’ Mike Hessman Friday night.
Hessman played all nine positions for Toledo last night, but he was saddled with the loss when the Clippers scored twice in the top of the ninth to win 12-11.
Hessman was the first Hen to play all nine positions since Kevin Hooper did so in the final home game of the 2005 season. Unlike Hooper, who earned the save in his contest, Hessman was saddled with a blown save and a loss.
Hessman said Hens manager Larry Parrish came up with the idea for him to play all nine positions earlier this week.
“[Parrish] came up to me and said, ‘Do you want to pull a Hoop?’” Hessman said. “I didn’t know what he meant until he told me he wanted to know if I wanted to play all nine [positions]. I said sure, let’s do it.
“It was fun, but it was extremely frustrating. But the fans were great, cheering and everything, and it was a lot of fun.”
Hessman got the first two outs in the ninth before giving up a single to Mickey Hall. Hall stole second, then took third on a throwing error by catcher Keith Hernandez before scoring the tying run on a single by Niuman Romero.
A single by Donnie Webb pushed Romero to third, but Hessman seemed poised to get out of the inning when he got Josh Barfield to ground to shortstop. But Audy Ciriaco’s throw to first was wild, allowing Romero to score the winning run.
Afterwards Hessman said the setback won’t spoil his memories of the last five years with Toledo.
“That hasn’t even crossed my mind,” said Hessman, who received an ovation from those fans who stayed for postgame fireworks. “It was frustrating when I didn’t get the job done at the end. I expected to get the guys out, and I expected to do my job, but I left too many pitches over the plate.”
It was an ugly finish to a game that was ugly throughout. The teams combined for 33 hits, setting a Fifth Third Field record, but the Hens tacked on four errors.
The Clippers scored five runs in the top of the second thanks to five hits — four of which went for extra bases — and a pair of Toledo errors.
But the Hens scored three times in the bottom of that inning thanks to an RBI single by Max Leon and a two-out, two-run double by Hernandez.
Toledo cut the lead to a single run with a run in the third that came home on a sacrifice fly by Jeff Frazier.
Columbus answered with three runs in the fourth as Hall hit a two-run homer and Jordan Brown added a run-scoring single.
The Hens cut the advantage to 8-5 with a run in the fourth, scoring on a pair of singles and a fielder’s choice by Scott Sizemore, then took the lead with a four-run sixth.
Sizemore’s two-run homer that inning cut the Clippers’ lead to one run, and Brent Clevlen’s two-out, two-run shot to right gave the Hens a one-run advantage.
Toledo added a run with a two-out seventh-inning rally that featured a double by Hernandez and an RBI single by Mike Gosse on his first Triple-A hit.
But Columbus retied the game with a pair of runs in the eighth when, with two outs, Toledo reliever Zach Simons gave up a single to Barfield and a two-run homer to Jordan Brown.
In the bottom of the eighth, the Hens grabbed a one-run lead on a two-out RBI single by Leon, but that only set the stage for Hessman’s heartbreak.
“We battled our butts off, but we came up a little short,” Parrish said. “We didn’t play stellar defense, and our pitching wasn’t very good.”
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