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 Altoona Curve

Game Notes

April 24, 2014 - Eastern League (EL1)
Altoona Curve News Release


ABOUT YESTERDAY: The Curve used a four-run rally in the ninth inning to defeat the Harrisburg Senators 10-9 Wednesday night at Peoples Natural Gas Field. With the Curve down 9-6, Justin Howard led off the inning with a solo blast to right off Senators reliever Tyler Herron. Alen Hanson then reached on an error by Herron who dropped the ball when covering the first base bag. After a flyout, Stetson Allie drew a walk to put runners on second and first. Mel Rojas Jr. then hit a ground ball to the Herron who overthrew the first baseman which allowed Hanson and Allie to score to tie the game at nine. After a couple intentional walks to load the bases, Elias Diaz hit the walk-off sacrifice fly to center that allowed Rojas to score. Lost among the exciting finish was the tremendous day at the plate by Allie, who went 3-for-3 with a pair of home runs including a grand slam in the third inning.

CURVE/SENATORS SERIES: Tonight's game marks the sixth meeting between Harrisburg and Altoona with the Curve leading the season series 4-1. Last week, Altoona played only two games against the Nationals' Double-A affiliate, squandering a two run lead and losing 4-3 last Monday and winning 5-2 on Wednesday. Last Tuesday's game was postponed due to inclement weather and rescheduled for July 12th in Harrisburg. All told, the Curve and Senators will meet 14 times this season with seven games played at Peoples Natural Gas Field and seven at Metro Bank Park.

Altoona holds the all-time record against Harrisburg with a 152-128 record including 82 wins in 132 games in Curve, Pa.

FOR ALTOONA: Tyler Sample will toss tonight for the Curve in the series finale against the Senators. This season, Sample is 1-0 with an ERA of 1.50. In the Colorado native's last start at home against Richmond, he tossed five shutout innings and allowed only two hits but showed some problems with his control. Sample walked five batters and this season has walked 14 total. However, he has kept opponents from reaching base via the base hit, as op- ponents are batting .139 against him. For more on Sample, see page two.

FOR HARRISBURG: In the series finale, southpaw Matt Purke will take the bump for the Senators. The lefty is 0-3 with a 9.49 ERA this season for Harrisburg. Purke has never thrown more than five innings in each of his three starts that he has had. In his last outing, went 4.1 innings against Reading with five runs (four earned) on seven hits and took his third loss of the season after the Senators lost 6-2. Purke was drafted by the Nationals in the third round of the 2011 MLB Draft from TCU and entered the season ranked as the 11th-best prospect in the Nationals organiza- tion according to Baseball America.

DOWNTOWN ALLIE: Stetson Allie's two home run game on Wednesday was the first time that the Curve have had a multi-home run game this season. The power hitting first baseman now leads the Eastern League with five home runs this year including three that have gone to the opposite field. This isn't the first time that a Curve slugger has gone deep twice in one game, but Allie's two home run game was the first since Justin Howard did it in August of last season against Erie. Stetson's third inning grand slam was also the first one Altoona has had since Alex Dickerson accomplished this feat last season on June 2 in Portland.

WALK-OFF WONDERS: Wednesday's game was the second walk-off win of the season for the Curve. The first one occurred on April 8 against Akron when Willy Garcia stepped up to the plate in the ninth and blasted a home run to left-center field that gave Altoona a 4-3 win. Last season, the Curve walked off at Peoples Natural Gas Field five times including two from players who are currently on the roster. Carlos Paulino hit a walk off single on August 1 last season against Binghamton and Mel Rojas, Jr. hit a walk off single two weeks later against Portland.

PEDAL TO THE METAL: The Curve have put up 38 total hits in the last three games against the Senators with 14 hits on Monday and Tuesday plus ten more Wednesday night. After beginning the series with the lowest team batting average in the entire league, the Curve are now hitting .246 which ranks sixth in the Eastern League. In this series, the Curve scored 17 runs including a season-high ten Monday night.

ELIAS SPORTS BUREAU: Curve catcher Elias Diaz has rocketed out of the gate in 2014. Through his first 12 games, Diaz is batting .429 with three doubles and six RBI to go along with a pair of walks and just four strikeouts.

He's hit safely in nine of his 13 games played and he's also thrown out seven of 20 basestealers (35%) from behind the plate. Entering play Monday, Diaz ranked at the top of the Eastern League but now stands in second place be- hind Portland's Mookie Betts.

BETTER CALL, PAUL(INO): On Monday, Carlos Paulino was transferred to the Altoona Curve roster from Triple-A In- dianapolis and went 0-for-4 in his first game back with Altoona on Wednes- day. The catcher was batting .207 with the Indianapolis Indians through ten games. Last year, Paulino was a mainstay behind the plate, playing in 99 games before a late season promotion to Triple-A. With the Curve last year, Paulino drove in 38 runs and was also behind the plate when Altoona no-hit the New Hampshire Fisher Cats on July 25 on the road. Paulino was acquired by the Pirates on March 30, 2011 in a trade with the Florida Marlins in exchange for infielder Jim Negrych.

MR. WONDERFUL(S): Two members of the starting rotation rank among the league leaders in ERA. Nick Kingham has the fifth best ERA (1.61) of any pitcher in the league and Adrian Sampson's 1.17 ERA (2nd) round out the Curve starters in the top-5 in ERA. Tyler Sample (1.50 ERA) was among the league leaders but the right hander thrown 12 innings this year, 2.2 innings shy of qualifying among the league leaders. As a whole, Altoona's pitching staff ranks atop the league in ERA (2.75). Curve starting pitchers have been consistent through the first three weeks of the season, holding a 2.43 ERA and the bullpen has a 3.19 ERA.


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