Altoona Curve Game Information: April 29, 2014
Published on April 29, 2014 under Eastern League (EL1)
Altoona Curve News Release
ABOUT SUNDAY: The Curve's bid to get back above .500 fell by the wayside on Sunday afternoon in Akron with a, 6-4, defeat at the hands of the Akron RubberDucks. Starter Adrian Sampson (3-2) had a great first inning, retiring the 'Ducks on eight pitches. The second, however, was another story as he was forced to throw 31 pitches and al- lowed two runs before being removed from the game. The Curve once again had some lapses in the field and couldn't recover enough offensively to make up for it. They pulled within a run after two runs in the top of the fourth but Ak- ron answered right back with a pair of runs in the fifth. Gift Ngoepe homered in the eighth and Alen Hanson tripled in a run in the ninth but it wasn't enough to complete a comeback.
CURVE/SEAWOLVES SERIES: The Curve make their way to Erie, Pa. for the first of three series this season at Jerry Uht Park. These two teams met to open the 2014 season with Erie staking claim to the series, 2-1, with one of the games being rescheduled for a doubleheader in Curve, Pa. in early July. Tonight's game marks the first of 11 match- ups for the Curve in Erie, which has been a place where they have enjoyed success across their franchise history. The Curve are 83-75 at Jerry Uht Park all time.
FOR ALTOONA: RHP Nick Kingham looks to right the ship and guide the Curve to the .500 mark once again on Monday night in Erie. Kingham was superb in his first start of the season, which came against the SeaWolves back in Curve, Pa. on April 6. The fifth-best prospect in the system according to Baseball America whiffed six and did not allow a run in his first victory of the campaign. Last time out, Kingham struck out a season-high tying six but allowed a season-high four runs (three earned) on a season-high seven hits to Harrisburg. Tonight's road start will be just the second of the year for Kingham. For more on Kingham, see page two.
FOR ERIE: RHP Warwick Saupold is scheduled to hit the slab for Erie tonight in the series opener. The pitching matchup between Saupold and Kingham is a rematch of what fans in Curve, Pa. were supposed to see on Opening Night but couldn't because of back-to-back rainouts. The Australian native hasn't gotten out of the gate as he'd like, owning a 6.62 ERA heading into action tonight. That ERA is largely in part due to his last outing versus Bowie where he surrendered nine runs (all earned) on 11 hits with four home runs in three innings on the road at Prince George's Stadium. Tonight's outing will be Saupold's second at Jerry Uht Park this season. In his first start of the season, he beat the Curve with five shutout innings in the first game of a doubleheader on April 5.
THE HOLLYWOOD TELEVISION SHOWCASE: The Pittsburgh Pirates recalled 2013 Curve starter Casey Sadler before their game with St. Louis on Sunday afternoon. When/If Sadler makes his MLB debut for the Bucs, he'll be the 112th Curve player to have played in the Major Leagues after playing in Altoona. This season for Triple-A India- napolis, Sadler was 3-0 with a 1.67 ERA in four starts, struck out 16 in 27 innings and had opponents hitting .185 off him. In 2013, Sadler led the team with 11 wins while boasting a 3.31 ERA in 23 starts while being named an Eastern League mid-season All-Star.
THAT THING THEY DO: Altoona will look to jump-start the offense in this series and will run into an Erie pitching staff that has the second-worst team ERA in the Eastern League at 5.15. This will be a welcome sight from the Ak- ron RubberDucks, who had the second-best team ERA in the circuit behind only the Curve. Erie has allowed a total of 109 runs this season, third-most in the league, for an average of 5.19 runs per game.
THAT THING WE DO: The Curve did not score a run in the first inning in the loss to Akron on Sunday, snapping a streak of seven straight games in which they did score in the first inning. Of the team's 88 runs, 21 of them have been scored in the first inning of play.
I AM SPARTACUS: Center fielder Mel Rojas, Jr. had his six-game hit streak end a few days ago but has walked in each of his last two games to run his on-base streak to eight games. It's two shy of the season-best mark set by Gift Ngoepe earlier this year.
SHADES: Altoona dropped its fifth day game contest of the 2014 season on Sunday to Akron at Canal Park and are 2-5 overall this season in games that start before 5 p.m. They're 1-3 on the road during the day away from home and have back-to-back day games coming up with Erie on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. The team is hitting .192 in day games compared to .254 in night contests. They're also allowing more than a run and a half more per game during the day with a 3.72 ERA during the sunny hours and a 2.19 ERA at night. THE ONEDERS: Three members of the starting rotation rank among the league leaders in ERA. Second on the leader board is pitcher Tyler Sample (1.00 ERA). Today's starter Nick Kingham (1.61) checks in with the fifth- best ERA while Adrian Sampson boasts a 1.82 ERA (seventh-best). As a whole, Altoona's pitching staff ranks atop the league in ERA (2.68).
THE PLAY-TONE (RAINY) GALAXY: Monday night's rainout was the fifth for the Curve of the 2014 season and their second on the road so far this season. The Curve have played a 21 games entering play tonight and have suffered through five rainouts.
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