Huntington Park - Columbus Clippers

Indianapolis Indians (PIT) @ Columbus Clippers (CLE)

June 17, 2025

Indians 7, Clippers 2

W: Ryder Ryan
L: Doug Nikhazy

HR: Nick Yorke (IND)

Attendance: 10,087
Time of Game: 2 hours, 58 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Columbus, OH
Opened: 2009
Capacity: 10,100
Level: Triple A
League: International

On Tuesday, June 17th, I set out on what might have been the craziest baseball trip I've ever completed, and that's saying something.  It was definitely the longest in terms of number of days and games attended.  It was originally supposed to be 11 games in 12 days, but one rainout knocked that down to 10 in 12.  What made the trip doable is that almost all of my drives between cities were no more than a couple hours.  So other than the first and last days of the trip, I didn't really spend too much time in my car.  The trip covered all over the states of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, plus one stop just across the river from Indiana in Louisville, Kentucky.  Stop number one was in central Ohio, the state's capital and largest city Columbus is interestingly not the home to either of the state's two MLB teams.  But it is the home of a very popular AAA franchise.  The Columbus Clippers are appropriately an affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians.  Interesting that this game featured a team named the Indians, but it wasn't the one affiliated with Cleveland.

Huntington Park is a very nice stadium and has some pretty unique characteristics among the AAA parks I've seen.  It is located in what is known as the Arena District, situated in between Columbus' MLS and NHL stadiums.  The concourse does not encircle the entire park because the right field wall butts right up against the sidewalk and street that runs past the stadium in right.  Pedestrians walking past the stadium could stop and watch the game through a chain linked fence if they so desire.  There are no seats in right, just a standing room porch above the tall right field wall.  A much different setup in left field though where there are expansive bleacher sections and lawn seating in left center.  A three story brick building creates the exterior of the park in left, with deck seating on the upper levels and one section of bleacher seating on the top level, reminiscent of the rooftop seating across the street from Wrigley Field.  Traditional seating covers the entire foul territory on the lower level from pole to pole.  The second level consists of suites.  There are also some premium, full service sections behind home plate that essentially connect the two levels.  The main concourse design is a bit of a mix between the two styles I've seen.  While there is a walkway at the top of the lower level that provides a view of the field from all points, most of the concourse is separated from the field by brick walls housing restrooms and other facilities.  This particular night was 10 cent hot dog night.  My takeaway is that this is an ingenious promotion for midweek games.  The stadium was absolutely packed on a Tuesday night.  I was at a MLB game in DC the night before that definitely had fewer butts in seats than this Tuesday minor league game.  The announced attendance was over 10,000 with more than 17,000 hot dogs served.

Starting this game on the mound for Indianapolis was the top pitching prospect in the game according to MLB.com, right handed fireballer Bubba Chandler.  I saw him in person last summer as well when he was pitching for the Pirates AA affiliate in Altoona.  He struggled a bit in that game, but was far more impressive on this night.  For one thing, he hit triple digits with his fastball multiple times.  I don't recall him throwing quite that hard last summer.  He only struck out three in his four innings on this night, but was pretty effective nonetheless, allowing a couple runs, only one of which was earned.  The Indians scored a pair in the top of the first on a RBI double to left center by former Pirates regular Jack Suwinski who then scored when the next batter Billy Cook singled to left.  Chandler ran into some trouble in the third, some of which was of his own making, but also some bad luck.  After a one out walk, he gave up a single on a flare to left that the left fielder had trouble seeing as he was looking towards the setting sun.  Not sure if it would have mattered though.  Brayan Rocchio then singled to right and Suwinski made a solid throw home that was going to hold the lead runner at third.  But the catcher let the one hop throw skip by him as Chandler may have impeded his vision as he was standing near the path of the throw for some reason rather than backing up the plate.  So the runner on third came in to score.  Then Chase DeLauter hit a chopper over the first baseman's head to score another run and tie the game.  The Indians answered right back in the third with two more runs, despite having two runners thrown out on the bases.  Darick Hall crushed a double high off the tall chain fence in right that probably would have been a homer in most minor league parks.  He was later thrown out at the plate on a fielder's choice play.  But then Ronny Simon delivered a double down the left field line to score a pair of runs and he too was thrown out on the play getting caught between second and third.  That's all the Indians would need as the Clippers did not score again.  For good measure, Nick Yorke drilled a two run homer to the concourse in left in the top of the eighth to give Indianapolis a 7-2 lead, which was the final score.

This was a great way to start this monster trip.  It was a perfect night for baseball in front of a huge crowd on a Tuesday night.  I wasn't quite as fortunate the next night though.  A line of heavy thunderstorms hit Dayton right around the time the game was to begin, which eventually caused the game to be canceled.  Even though I was able to check out the park in its entirety, I do plan on making a return trip to Dayton to see a game at some point so I won't be writing about it at this time.  The next game I actually did see was in Louisville on Thursday night.

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Next ballpark: Louisville Slugger Field in Louisville, KY