Altoona Curve Game Information: April 19, 2014
April 19, 2014 - Eastern League (EL1)
Altoona Curve News Release
ABOUT YESTERDAY: Gift Ngoepe put down a textbook suicide squeeze bunt with Alen Hanson breaking down from third in the eighth inning to grab what turned out to be the game-winning run in a, 2-1, win over the Richmond Flying Squirrels. Altoona took the initial lead in the game in the second inning when Willy Garcia doubled and Elias Diaz grabbed the first of his two hits to bring him home. Tyler Sample worked around five walks and scattered two hits over five scoreless innings. Richmond tied the game with an unearned run in the sixth off Emmanuel de Leon before the Curve were able to bounce back in the eighth and take the lead back. Hanson tripled down the right field line to setup Ngoepe's squeeze attempt. Ryan Beckman locked the save down in the ninth while Jhonathan Ramos (1-1) earned the victory. Diaz and Hanson both finished with a pair of hits in the win.
CURVE/SQUIRRELS SERIES: Saturday afternoon's game marks the seventh time that Altoona and Richmond have faced each other this season. During the last road trip, Altoona spoiled the Squirrels' home opener but Richmond took the next three games including a 5-4 walk off win last Friday. This is the third of 14 games between the Curve and Squirrels at Peoples Natural Gas Field. Last season, Altoona went 6-5 against Richmond in Curve, Pa., and have won 31 of the 49 games all-time against the Squirrels at Peoples Natural Gas Field.
FOR ALTOONA: Southpaw Joely Rodriguez will try to extract some revenge when he takes on the Richmond Flying Squirrels on Saturday afternoon. Last Sunday in Richmond, Rodriguez allowed a season-high five runs in just three innings of work while throwing only 60 pitches. It was in stark contract to what he was able to do in his first outing, which was at home, when he allowed two runs over six innings to Akron on April 8. Rodriguez was added to the Pirates' 40-man roster in the offseason after putting himself on the map with a stellar 2013. He entered the 2014 campaign as the 30th-best prospect in the organization according to Baseball America. For more on Rodriguez, see page two.
FOR RICHMOND: Dueling Rodriguez on Saturday afternoon will be the Giants top prospect in RHP Kyle Crick, who checks in as the No. 1 prospect in the system according to Baseball America. Last Saturday in Richmond, the Curve were able to be patient with Crick and benefitted. The Texas native was only able to go 2.2 innings and threw 74 pitches (41 for strikes) while walking three and striking out five and giving up two runs (one earned) on three hits.
Despite the fact the Curve got Crick out early, they were unable to come away with a victory after Richmond benefit- ted from 12 Curve pitching staff walks. Today's start will be Crick's second of the year on the road, where he was much more efficient. In his first Double-A start on the road in New Britain, Crick used 74 pitches to get through five innings while striking out five.
MAKE 'EM EARN IT: Altoona's pitching staff has thrown a total of 18 innings in this series without allowing an earned run due to five defensive miscues across the first two games. All three runs that the Squirrels have scored in this series have been unearned.
ELIAS SPORTS BUREAU: Curve catcher Elias Diaz has rocketed out of the gate in 2014. Through his first 10 games, Diaz is batting a smoldering .424 with three doubles and three RBI to go along with a pair of walks and just four strikeouts. He's hit safely in eight of his 10 games and he's also thrown out seven of 20 basestealers (35%) from behind the plate. Entering play on Saturday, Diaz leads the league in batting at .424 ahead of Mookie Betts of Portland and Bryson Myles of Akron. His .424 average ranks seventh in all of MiLB in the early season, trailing Eugenio Velez of Triple-A Nashville (.452). Last season for Bradenton, Diaz hit .279 in 57 games with 12 doubles and 15 RBI.
A GIFT FOR YOU: Second baseman Gift Ngoepe has gotten out of the gate well for the Curve in his second go around at the Double-A level in 2014. Despite going hitless the past few games, the patient Ngoepe has reached base in 10 straight games entering today's finale with the Squirrels. The Pietersburg, South Africa native has also drawn at least one walk in seven consecutive games and holds a .415 on-base percentage.
A SIGN OF THINGS TO COME?: After some tough games during the final few games of the road trip, the Curve bull- pen has come back home to feel right at home. In the two games in this series, the bullpen has pitched a combined nine innings and allowed one unearned run.
TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN: A shining spot for the Curve during their last road trip and the current homestand is the starting pitching. The rotation combined to allow only nine runs over 39.2 innings pitched, good for a 2.04 ERA. Despite the struggles over the final few games in Richmond, the Curve pitching staff still checks in with the best ERA in the 12-team Eastern League (2.81). Nick Kingham has the best ERA (0.53) of any pitcher in the league. Additionally, Tyler Sample's 1.50 ERA (3rd) and Adrian Sampson's 1.59 ERA (4th) round out the three Curve starters in the top-5 in terms of ERA entering play this afternoon.
"WILLY" CONTINUE?: Outfielder Willy Garcia (No. 14 - Baseball America) has hit safely in seven of his last eight games but is still looking for his first multi-hit game of the season. During the road trip, Garcia batted .200 but came through in several clutch situations and collected six RBI during the road trip. This season Garcia is batting .163 with a team-high three home runs. Last season, Garcia led the entire Pirates minor league system and Florida State League in outfield assists in 2013, throwing out 20 runners.
He found his first outfield assist of the 2014 season on Friday night, gun- ning down Eric Sim trying to go first to third.
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