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Altoona Curve

Altoona Curve Game Information: April 13, 2014

April 13, 2014 - Eastern League (EL1)
Altoona Curve News Release


ABOUT YESTERDAY: A franchise-record 12 walks inhibited the Curve in a, 4-3, loss to the Richmond Flying Squir- rels on Saturday night at The Diamond. For the third straight night in the River City, the Curve scored first in the first, this time thanks to a Mel Rojas, Jr. double that scored Gift Ngoepe. Richmond countered in the bottom of the inning with two runs off starter Tyler Sample, who was making his first Double-A start on Saturday. Like on Friday night, the Curve immediately responded and scored a run in the second inning after Andy Vasquez doubled, moved to third and scored on a passed ball. A tie game is where the night stayed until the late innings when the Squirrels benefitted from four straight two-out walks in the sixth to take the lead. Also like last night, Willy Garcia came up with a big hit, this time roping a run-scoring triple to tie the game in the eighth. As fate would have it, however, Richmond scored in the bottom of the eighth after they loaded up the bases with two hit batters and a walk before a sac fly by Mario Lisson.

CURVE/FLYING SQUIRRELS SERIES: Sunday afternoon marks the fourth of 21 games between the Altoona Curve and the Richmond Flying Squirrels and also the fourth 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: On the hill in the series finale looking to pitch the Curve to a series split with the Squirrels is south- paw Joely Rodriguez, who will be making his second Double-A start and his first on the road. Rodriguez, who was added to the 40-man roster in the offseason, turned in a quality start in his first go around at the level on Tuesday night vs. Akron. The native of Santo Domingo, D.R. allowed two runs on five hits while walking three in what turned out to be a, 4-3, winner for the Curve in walk-off fashion. In road games for the Bradenton Marauders last season, Rodriguez was 2-1 with a 2.76 ERA (five starts). For more on Rodriguez, see page two.

FOR RICHMOND: Countering the Curve lefty Rodriguez will be Squirrels LHP Kelvin Marte in the series finale Sunday afternoon at The Diamond. Marte, 26, has spent a long time in the Giants organization after making his first appearance in the system back in 2007 with the DSL Giants. The lefty from Santo Domingo spent part of 2010, all of 2011, part of 2012 and all of 2013 with the High-A San Jose Giants in the California League. Last year for San Jose, Marte was 6-4 with a 3.67 ERA in 25 games (15 starts). In his first Double-A start, the lefty allowed three runs on five hits in 4.1 innings on the road in Bowie.

MOVING ON...: Altoona's 12 walks on Saturday night vs. Richmond surpassed the previous franchise high of 10, which had been accomplished eight prior times and most recently in 2012. In total, the Curve allowed 15 free base runners for the Squirrels with the addition of three hit batters to the 12 walks. Of the four runs that the Squirrels scored on Saturday, three of them reached via a free pass or hit batter.

HIGH FIVE: Second baseman Gift Ngoepe and center fielder Mel Rojas, Jr. are currently riding team-best five game hitting streaks into this afternoon's series finale with Richmond. Ngoepe has gotten off to a hot start out of the gate, batting .308 through his first eight games. In Ngoepe's first go around with Altoona in 2013 he batted .208 through his first eight games.

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.

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. Hanson 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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