Altoona Curve Game Information: August 15, 2014
August 15, 2014 - Eastern League (EL1)
Altoona Curve News Release
ABOUT YESTERDAY: The Curve failed to get the series sweep against the Trenton Thunder after they lost 4-3 on Thursday night at Peoples Natural Gas Field. Angel Sanchez suffered the loss in the game after he allowed four runs over five innings of work. The right hander had a rough first inning when he allowed a two-run home run but settled down and, at one point, retired ten straight Thunder hitters. He ran into more trouble in the fifth inning. With two outs and a runner on third, Ben Gamel hit a fly ball that looked playable and would have ended the inning, but it was lost in the sky and dropped in for a double. The Thunder ultimately scored two runs in the inning and both were charged to Sanchez. The Curve came back to within one in the eighth with an RBI double by Drew Maggi, but Altoona went down quietly in the ninth.
CURVE/SEAWOLVES SERIES: Altoona and Erie will wrap up their season series with the final set at Jerry Uht Park beginning tonight. So far this season, the SeaWolves lead the season series with 12 wins. The two teams last met at Peoples Natural Gas Field from July 28-30 in a series that the Curve took two out of three games from. That series was the only time that the Curve took a series against the Howlers all year. It was also the first time Altoona won a series against Erie since July of last season.
FOR ALTOONA: On the hill for Altoona in the opening contest is California native Tom Harlan. The 24-year-old is 3-2 with a 3.46 ERA for Altoona in seven games this season. In his last start, Harlan allowed two runs on four hits over 5.1 innings in Reading to earn his third win of his Double-A career. The southpaw has tossed at least five innings in all seven of his starts with the Curve in 2014. He began the year with the Bradenton Marauders exclusively out of the bullpen but became a starter when he was promoted to the Curve in early July. Harlan was drafted by the Pirates in the 13th round of the 2012 MLB Draft from Fresno State University. For more on Harlan, see page two.
FOR ERIE: The SeaWolves will send LHP Josh Turley to the hill to open up the series. Much like Harlan, Turley began the year in the Florida State League and was promoted to Double-A in early-July. With the SeaWolves, the lefty is 3-2 and owns a 3.54 ERA in five starts. The Texas native allowed four runs in his last start over five innings but suffered the loss at home against New Britain. The 23-year-old previously faced the Curve at Peoples Natural Gas Field on July 29 and earned the win after he tossed five innings of two-run ball. Turley was drafted by the Tigers in the 16th round of the 2012 MLB Draft from Baylor University.
CHANGING OF THE GUARDS: A pair of All-Stars may have seen their final games with the Altoona Curve. The Pitts- burgh Pirates officially promoted RHP Adrian Sampson to Triple-A Indianapolis Thursday afternoon and made his de- but on Thursday. The 22-year-old put together one of the greatest seasons in Altoona Curve history after he went 10-5 with a 2.55 ERA in 24 starts. Sampson had his best outing of the season when the came within two outs of throwing a no-hitter versus Bowie on July 18 but settled for the first nine-inning complete game one-hitter in franchise history. Along with Sampson, Curve catcher Elias Diaz has been promoted up to Indy. Diaz was in the midst of a career-best 16-game hit streak before his promotion. The 23-year-old catcher was hitting .328 with six homers and 54 RBIs in 91 games with Altoona.
A PIRATES' LIFE FOR ME: Pirates infielder Clint Barmes joined the Curve yesterday on a MLB rehabilitation assign- ment and played five innings. Barmes went 0-for-3 at the plate and didn't have a ball hit at him last night while play- ing shorstop. He's scheduled to travel with the team to Erie on Friday to work out before concluding his rehab stint in Altoona with five innings on Saturday in Erie. He's then scheduled to join Triple-A Indianapolis. POST-BREAK PARTY: The Curve are 17-10 in their 27 games played since the All-Star break entering play today. In those 26 games, the Curve have hit .294 (266-for-906) as a team with Elias Diaz (.406, 19 G), Willy Garcia (.340, 27 G), and Stetson Allie (.297, 26 G) leading the charge. The team ERA during the stretch is 3.24. THE BIRD CAGE: A large part for the success of the Curve since the break has been the bullpen, who have a collec- tive ERA of 2.64 (24 ER, 81.2 IP) in their 26 games since the break. They've given up fewer than a hit an inning (70 hits in 81.2 IP) and opposing hitters have hit .230 off them in the 26 games. Ryan Beckman has yielded just one run in eight appearances while Kenn Kasparek has also given up just one run since the break (11 games).
ELIAS SPORTS BUREAU: Catcher Elias Diaz went 2-for-3 on Thursday to extend is hitting streak to 16 games, which is the longest streak this season by any Curve hitter (and is his personal career high). With the streak at 16 games, he is tied for the fourth-longest streak in team history with Gorkys Hernandez (2010) and Starling Marte (2011). Diaz is expected to be promoted to Triple-A on Friday.
BIRTHDAY BELL: Josh Bell got off to a slow start after he was promoted to the Curve in the middle of July with a .111 batting average through his first five games. Since then, Bell has hit safely in 17 of his last 19 games. All told, Bell is hitting .287 with seven RBI through 24 games with the Curve. The switch-hitting outfielder has hit safely in six straight games but hasn't played in the last two Curve games. Rated by Baseball America as the seventh-best prospect in the Pirates system, Bell turned 22 years old yesterday.
WALKA WALKA: Stetson Allie has made huge improvements this season in just his second full year as a hitter. The 23-year-old was hitting .207 during the first two months of the season (49 games) and is hitting .293 (53-for- 181) since May 1. This month alone, Allie is hitting .342 and has struck out just five times in 38 at bats while drawing 11 walks. The Florida native currently ranks fourth in the league with 59 walks and owns a .362 on-base percentage.
PUT IT IN THE BOOKS: All-Star closer Kenn Kasparek has been a rock at the back end of the Curve bullpen since re-joining the team from Triple-A in early June. In 24 games total this season in Double-A, Kasparek is 1-0 with 11 saves in 12 opportunities while boasting a 0.87 ERA. The big righty failed to convert on his first save opportunity of the season on Friday night in Reading. Despite the setback, he's whiffed 30 in 31.0 innings while op- ponents bat just .155 off him.
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