Altoona Curve Game Information
April 12, 2014 - Eastern League (EL1)
Altoona Curve News Release
ABOUT YESTERDAY: The Curve suffered a stunning defeat at the hands of the Richmond Flying Squirrels on Friday night, 5-4, in front of another sold out crowd at The Diamond in the RVA. Altoona led 4-1 entering the ninth and even led 4-1 in the ninth with two outs. Things went awry from there as the Squirrels scored four times with two away with the knockout blow coming from Matt Duffy, who singled on the infield towards short. It scored Ricky Oropesa from third initially and, eventually, Tyler Graham from second base for the winning run as shortstop Alen Hanson kicked the ball towards first while trying to field it. Mel Rojas, Jr. had given the Curve the lead in the eighth with a clutch two-out RBI single before Willy Garcia bashed his second home run of the year (a two-run blast) that gave the Curve the three-run advantage. Nick Kingham took a no decision in the game after six innings of duty while surrendering one run with four strikeouts. Stetson Allie drove in the game's first run in the first with a double.
CURVE/FLYING SQUIRRELS SERIES: Saturday night marks the third of 21 games between the Altoona Curve and the Richmond Flying Squirrels and also the third of seven games scheduled at The Diamond. Last season, the Curve and Squirrels squared off 21 times with the end advantage favoring the Squirrels, who took 11 of the victories. Altoona played ten games in Richmond last season and won four times. Over the years, the Curve hold the all-time advantage over the Giants Double-A affiliate with 47 wins in 87 games.
FOR ALTOONA: To the bump in game three of the series for the Curve goes Tyler Sample, who will be making his second appearance in Double-A and his first start. A part of the original five-man rotation, Sample was forced to pig- gyback Joely Rodriguez on Tuesday vs. Akron due to the three rainouts that plagued the Curve during the first week of the season. In that role, Sample earned a win while pitching three innings and allowing one unearned run. He came to the Pirates organization by way of the Rule 5 draft with the Bucs selecting him in the Minor League Phase of the Rule 5 last December. The Colorado-born Sample had spent his entire pro career up to that point in the Royals orga- nization and, more specifically, the previous three seasons with Wilmington (Carolina League). For more on Sample, see page two.
FOR RICHMOND: The third head in the Squirrels' fearsome foursome rotation gets the ball in tonight's game in RHP Kyle Crick. Crick, 21, checked in to the 2014 season as the best prospect in the Giants entire farm system according to Baseball America after putting up lights out numbers in limited action with the San Jose Giants of the California League in 2013. The righty missed some time with an oblique injury last season that limited his innings with San Jose to just 68.2. They were an impressive set of 68 innings though as he was 3-1 with a 1.57 ERA (14 starts) and 95 strikeouts (39 walks). He grabbed some more work in the Arizona Fall League after the season, pitching for the Scottsdale Scorpions under current Squirrels manager Russ Morman and current Curve pitching coach Stan Kyles. In the AFL, Crick went 0-1 with a 2.87 ERA in seven games (five starts), whiffing 24 in 15.2 IP. He also checks into this season as the 32nd-best prospect in MiLB according to MLB.com.
KING'S RANSOM: Nick Kingham gave up his first run of the 2014 season in his final inning of work on Friday night versus the Squirrels and now has a 0.75 ERA through his first two starts. He began the season with 11 scoreless in- nings and fanned 10 batters in 12 innings of work. It was also his second straight quality start and the fourth overall quality start for Curve starters, who boast a 2.50 ERA through the first seven games of this season.
CONNECT WITH OTHERS ON BASEBALL LINKEDIN: Players from both sides of this team should be familiar with one another because a decent amount of them spent time together on the Scottsdale Scorpions team in the AFL last season.
Matt Benedict, Alen Hanson and Gift Ngoepe were all a part of that Scottsdale team. They played alongside current Squirrels Kyle Crick, Cody Hall, Derek Law, Adalberto Mejia, Jarrett Parker and Angel Villalona. Plus, Squir- rels infielder Mario Lisson played under current Curve manager Carlos Garcia this past offseason in the Venezuelan Winter League for Magallanes.
PITCHING IN: The Curve pitching staff checks in to tonight's game with the best ERA in the 12-team Eastern League at 2.45. It's been more of an attack of pitching to contact for Curve pitching as they rank 11th in the league early on in terms of pitching staff strikeouts (43).
SAMPSONITE...NOT SO WAY OFF: Starter Adrian Sampson has began his Double-A career in a swell fashion, going 1-1 with a 2.45 ERA (11.0 IP, 10 K and 2 BB) through two starts. The native of Redmond, Wash. also got his first looks at the batter's box on Thursday night vs. Richmond and singled in his first at bat. He then proceeded to move to second on a wild pitch, to third on an infield single and then home on another infield single. It was the first time that Sampson had taken hacks in a game since his freshman year of high school at Skyline HS (Sammamish, Wash.).
PROSPECTOR: The 2014 Altoona Curve Opening Day roster contains seven of the Top-30 prospects in the Pirates system according to Baseball America. Nick Kingham (No. 5), Alen Hanson (No. 6), Willy Garcia (No. 14), Stetson Allie (No. 23), Adrian Sampson (No. 27), Gift Ngoepe (No. 29), and Joely Rodriguez (No. 30) make up the seven players on the list. Kingham also is listed as having the system's best changeup and best control, Ngoepe the system's best defensive infielder and Garcia the best outfield arm. Han- son also found himself on some additional prospect lists entering the 2014 season, checking in as the 67th-best prospect entering 2014 according to MLB.com and the 76th-best in the Baseball America Top-100. Kingham joined Hanson on the BA list and is slotted as the 64th-best prospect in MiLB.
HE MUST WORKOUT: Outfielder Willy Garcia (No. 14 - Baseball America) joins the Curve to start the season, which will be his first in Double-A. Garcia led the entire Pirates minor league system and Florida State League in outfield assists in 2013, throwing out 20 runners. The Curve record for outfield assists in a season is 18, which was set by Starling Marte in 2011.
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