EL1 Altoona Curve

Altoona Curve Game Information: August 3, 2014 vs. Richmond

Published on August 3, 2014 under Eastern League (EL1)
Altoona Curve News Release


ABOUT YESTERDAY: The Curve continue to stay red-hot since the All-Star break after a 7-6 win over the Richmond Flying Squirrels on Saturday night at Peoples Natural Gas Field. Adrian Sampson put up his team-best 16th quality start of the season to earn his tenth win of the year. Offensively, the Curve saw another big day at the plate by Willy Garcia, who went 2-for-4 with a run scored which extended his hit streak to 13 games, tied for the longest on the team this season with Alen Hanson. Elias Diaz went 3-for-3 with three RBIs which included a two-run double that gave the Curve the lead in the fifth. Diaz' double extended his hit streak to a season-best nine straight games. Joely Rodriguez earned his first save of the season after he recorded the final four outs of the game.

CURVE/SQUIRRELS SERIES: It's been a good nearly two months since the division rival Richmond Flying Squirrels have locked horns with the Curve and much has changed since that time. The first place Squirrels enter this series with 10 wins in the 16 games played so far versus Altoona. However, five of the six Curve wins in the season-series have come here at Peoples Natural Gas Field and the Curve have won each of the first three games in this series. With the win last night for Altoona, they lead the all-time series versus Richmond 52-49.

FOR ALTOONA: RHP Angel Sanchez will take the hill for the Curve in the series finale against the Flying Squirrels. Sanchez entered the season tabbed by Baseball America as the No. 16 prospect in the Miami Marlins system but has had a forgettable year as a whole. The Dominican Republic native went 0-8 with a 6.88 ERA with the Marlins' Double-A affiliate in Jacksonville and was put on waivers in June and claimed by the Tampa Bay Rays. He didn't have much success in his brief stay with Double-A Montgomery. The 24-year-old was put on waivers again and claimed by the Chicago White Sox and appeared in five total games in the White Sox organization before he was put on waivers and claimed by the Pirates on July 31. For more on Sanchez, see page two.

FOR RICHMOND: The Squirrels will toss RHP Clayton Blackburn in the final game of the series. The right hander is 3-5 with a 2.73 ERA in 12 games with the Giants' Double-A affiliate. Entering this season, Blackburn was tabbed by Baseball America as the tenth-best prospect in the Giants organization. Blackburn has appeared in two games this season against the Curve and is 1-1 with a 1.74 ERA, though both games were in mid-April. Blackburn missed the latter stages of May and all of June from a rib injury. Since his return, the right hander is 1-0 but holds an astonish- ing 1.06 ERA in five starts (2 ER/17.0 IP). Blackburn was drafted by the Giants in the 16th round of the 2011 MLB Draft from Edmond Santa Fe High School in Oklahoma.

BIG WILLY STYLE: On the offensive side of the diamond, Willy Garcia has been no slouch since the All-Star Break. After winning the Ghostman Games for the West as part of the E.L. All-Star Stop, Garcia has gone on a tear in the first 17 games of the unofficial second half. In those 17 games, Garcia is hitting .424 (28-for-66) with seven doubles, four homers, 13 RBI and 13 runs scored. Since June 1, Garcia has hit .330 (61-for-185) with 24 extra-base hits (14 doubles, one triple and nine home runs). He's riding a season-best, 13-game hit streak into today's game. It's only the second time this season that a Curve player has had a hit streak of 10 or more games this season.

BREAK OUT THE BROOMS: The Curve are aiming for the four-game series sweep tonight against the Squirrels and if Altoona wins, they will also win their fourth straight series. The last time the Curve won four straight series was at the end of the 2012 season when the Curve won 13 of their final 16 games and took series wins over Trenton, Richmond, Akron, and Erie. Earlier this season, the Curve swept a four-game series against the Harrisburg Senators.

FLIP FLOP: In Saturday's ballgame, Curve All-Star Alen Hanson got the start at second base for the first time since the 2011 season. The 21-year-old played in 100 games at short and committed 29 errors at the position, the most in the entire Eastern League. Hanson committed a fielding error in the third inning of that ballgame to give him a total of 30 this year. The All-Star has played most of his career games as a shortstop (369) but has had some experience at second (57 games). Gift Ngoepe has taken over the duties at short.

HERE TO STAY: 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 11 of his last 12 games and is currently riding an eight-game hit streak. During his current hit streak, Bell is hitting .400 (14-for-35). All told, Bell is hitting .284 with five RBIs through 17 games with the Curve.

POINT BREAK: The Curve are 12-5 in their 17 games played since the All-Star break entering play tonight. In those 17 games, the Curve have hit .303 as a team with Willy Garcia (.424, 17 G), Gift Ngoepe (.348, 14 G), and Dan Gamache (.325, 11 G) leading the charge. The team ERA during the stretch is 3.22.

THE BRAHMA BULL(PEN): A large part for the success of the Curve since the break has been the bullpen, who have a collective ERA o f 2.25 in their 16 games since the break. They've given up fewer than a hit an inning (38 hits in 52.0 IP) and opposing hitters have hit .203 off them in the 16 games. Ryan Beckman (six games), Jeff Inman (five games) and Kenn Kasparek (seven games) all have not yielded a run in that time frame. Another major factor from that bullpen has been in late-game situations. After a blown save on July 17 in the first game after the All-Star break, the Curve 'pen hasn't blown any saves in eight opportunities. Though the Curve have played 17 games since the break, the 'pen has been summoned 16 times because of Adrian Sampson's one-hitter on July 18.

WILLY BREAK IT?: Curve outfielder Willy Garcia notched his 17th outfield assist of the season in the loss on Tuesday night to Erie when he hosed Dixon Machado at second base trying to stretch a single into a double. Garcia's 17 outfield assists are the most in the Eastern League. The 21-year-old is just one shy of matching Starling Marte's franchise record of 18 set back in the 2011 season.

TEN FEET TALL: 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 20 games total this season in Double-A, Kasparek is 1-0 with nine saves in nine opportunities while boasting a 0.67 ERA. He's whiffed 24 in 27.0 innings while opponents bat just .156 off him. The unorthodox-sling- ing righty stands at 6-feet-10-inches tall and was acquired by the Pirates as a minor league free agent on May 28, 2012.

#WINNING: July was the best month for the Curve in the past two seasons. In the 31 games played, the Curve went 18-13 and batted .294 as a team, which was the best average in the league that month. With the win on Mon- day, the Curve clinched a winning month for the first time this season and the first time since July of 2013 (15-11). The 18 wins in a month is also the most for a Curve team in the Carlos Garcia era, which began in 2013.

The last time the Curve won more than 18 games in a month was back in the 2010 season when the Curve won 20 games in August and 19 that May.

WE'RE GOING STREAKING!: Several Curve players are riding hit streaks en- tering tonight's ball game. Willy Garcia's streak is the longest at 13 straight and Elias Diaz is second with a nine game streak. Both Garcia and Diaz have matched their personal career-highs. Joining the duo are Josh Bell, who has hit safely in eight straight while Alen Hanson and Drew Maggi are each rid- ing a modest four-game streak.

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Eastern League Stories from August 3, 2014


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