Altoona Curve Game Information: August 16, 2014
Published on August 16, 2014 under Eastern League (EL1)
Altoona Curve News Release
ABOUT YESTERDAY: Lefty Tom Harlan shoved on Friday night, dealing a career-high seven shutout innings while permitting just two hits. However, a two-run lead was not enough to protect a win for Harlan as the Curve lost in 10 innings, 3-2. Willy Garcia, who finished the day 3-for-3 with a walk, slugged his 18th home run of the season on Friday night to give the Curve the initial lead. Stetson Allie followed suit in the eighth inning with his 17th home run of the season and it put the Curve up, 2-0. Erie went on to score single runs in the eighth, ninth and 10th innings to walk off on the Curve yet again at Jerry Uht Park. Kenn Kasparek (1-1) suffered the loss and the blown save. It was the 10th extra innings loss of the season for the Curve and the 11th time they've lost on a walk-off hit this season.
CURVE/SEAWOLVES SERIES: Altoona and Erie will wrap up their season series with the final set at Jerry Uht Park. So far this season, the SeaWolves lead the season series with 13 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.
FOR ALTOONA: To the bump on Saturday night goes A.J. Morris, who returns to Altoona on his way back from a right forearm strain that he suffered while pitching for Triple-A. Morris carved up the Eastern League earlier this season, posting a 5-1 record and a league-best 1.64 ERA in 13 games (eight starts) before getting the promotion to Triple-A where he went on to pitch a nine-inning, complete-game shutout and earn International League Pitcher of the Week honors. Morris has been on his way back and this is his third stop in his hopes to get back to Triple-A. He last pitched in relief for Bradenton on August 12 (0 H, 1 K). For more on Morris, see page two.
FOR ERIE: Australian-born Warwick Saupold starts for Erie tonight in the second game of the series and it's been a tough year for the righty who was named Erie's Pitcher of the Year. He had a tough first three months to the season and then seemed to turn thins around in July. That was until he faced the Curve in his last start of the month and he allowed two runs on five hits with three walks, a balk and four strikeouts. He's allowed eight runs on 14 hits in his last 10 innings across his last two starts. The Perth native has lost three straight decisions and is 4-5 at home this season. However, this is his sixth start against the Curve and he is 3-1 with a 3.41 ERA in his previous five.
BIG WILLY STYLE: Outfielder Willy Garcia slugged his 18th home run of the season in the loss on Friday night to Erie to tie his career-high set back in 2012 with West Virginia. That feat was done in 122 games while Garcia has only played in 111 games this season. He leads the team in RBI with 60, which is 17 shy of his career-best mark from 2012 when he drove home 77. Since June 1, Garcia has hit .315 (70-for-222) with 16 doubles, one triple, 11 home runs and 37 RBI.
TOMMY BOY: Southpaw Tom Harlan has enjoyed his starting role since being promoted here to Double-A. Through eight starts, Harlan is 3-2 and boasts a 2.93 ERA after throwing seven scoreless innings on Friday night in Erie. The seven frames set a new career-high in innings pitched for the Fresno State product, who's prior career high was 6.1 innings on two different occasions earlier this year with the Curve. Prior to this stint with the Curve, Harlan had only made one career start since being drafted in 2012.
A PIRATES' LIFE FOR ME: Pirates infielder Clint Barmes joined the Curve on Thursday on a MLB rehabilitation as- signment and played five innings. Barmes went 0-for-3 at the plate and didn't have a ball hit at him last night while playing shortstop. Barmes is expected to play in five innings today for the Curve in the second game of the series with Erie as he comes back from the left groin strain.
POST-BREAK PARTY: The Curve are 17-11 in their 28 games played since the All-Star break entering play today. In those 27 games, the Curve have hit .291 (274-for-942) as a team with Willy Garcia (.359, 28 G), and Stetson Allie (.298, 27 G) leading the charge. The team ERA during the stretch is 3.23 (89 ER, 248.1 IP).
CHANGING OF THE GUARDS: A pair of All-Stars have seen their final games with the Altoona Curve. The Pittsburgh Pirates officially promoted RHP Adrian Sampson to Triple-A Indianapolis Thursday afternoon and made his debut 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. THE BIRD CAGE: A large part for the success of the Curve since the break has been the bullpen, who have a col- lective ERA of 2.88 (27 ER, 84.1 IP) in their 27 games since the break. They've given up fewer than a hit an inning (77 hits in 84.2 IP) and oppos- ing hitters have hit .242 off them in the 27 games.
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 on Thursday but has yet to play in a game since Tuesday.
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 (54-for- 184) since May 1. This month alone, Allie is hitting .341 and has struck out just six times in 41 at bats while drawing 13 walks. The Florida native currently ranks fourth in the league with 61 walks and owns a .365 on-base percentage.
Eastern League Stories from August 16, 2014
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