Columbus stays hot, tops Indianapolis in rain-shortened win
Petey Halpin and Gabriel Arias powered Columbus past Indianapolis as a 42-minute rain delay capped a 9-4 win that kept the Clippers in the International League chase.
Columbus did not just take another win at Victory Field; it banked one with the kind of early power and starter length that travels well in a playoff chase. Petey Halpin flipped the game in the second inning with a two-run homer, Gabriel Arias added a three-run shot on rehab assignment, and the Clippers beat Indianapolis 9-4 in a rain-shortened game that was called in the top of the sixth.
Esmerlyn Valdez gave Indianapolis a quick start with a two-run opposite-field homer in the first, his 13th of the season, but the lead lasted only briefly. Columbus answered fast, and Halpin’s third home run of the year put the Clippers ahead 3-2. That swing mattered because it turned the night from a chase into control, and Columbus never trailed again.
Arias widened the gap before the tarp came out, giving Columbus the cushion it needed when the weather cut the game short. By then, the pattern was clear: the Clippers were not scraping together runs one at a time, they were cashing in when the ball left the yard. The offense also stayed efficient enough to make the late rain delay, 42 minutes, more of a footnote than a threat.
Kolby Allard helped make that possible. The 28-year-old left-hander worked five innings, allowed four runs on four hits and struck out four, steady enough to protect a lead in a game where the sixth inning never arrived. That kind of outing matters in June, especially for a club that did not need to empty the bullpen in a 1 hour, 45 minute night at Victory Field.
The result pushed Columbus to 36-27 and kept the Cleveland Guardians’ Triple-A affiliate squarely in the International League playoff scramble. Indianapolis fell to 25-39 in its 124th season and 30th at Victory Field, where 7,149 fans saw another weather interruption in a series that has already been shaped by rain more than once this year. Columbus has now paired timely power, usable starting innings and a rehab boost from Arias into a formula that looks less like a streak and more like a sustainable push.
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