EL1 Altoona Curve

Altoona Curve Game Information: July 1, 2014

July 1, 2014 - Eastern League (EL1)
Altoona Curve News Release


ABOUT YESTERDAY: The Curve offense battled all night long, erasing two separate three-run deficits, but still fell shy in the series-opening game in Bowie, 7-6. Willy Garcia hit two homers in the loss for the Curve for his second multi-homer game of the season and third of his career. The Baysox scored three times in the first off Curve starter Joan Montero but Altoona responded in the secnod with Garcia's first home run, a two run blast. Alen Hanson tied the game later in the inning on an RBI single. Bowie added two more in the second and one in the third to take a 6-3 lead but Altoona responded again on Garcia's second homer and an RBI single by Drew Maggi to tie the game in the sixth. However, Bowie scored one run the seventh which was enough to down the Curve for the 53rd ime this season.

CURVE/BAYSOX SERIES: Altoona continues series with the Bowie Baysox tonight at 6:35 p.m. at Prince George's Stadium in Maryland. The Curve are 2-2 this season against the Baysox after they met early May at Peoples Natural Gas Field. The Curve took the first game of that series then lost game two before former Curve center fielder Mel Ro- jas, Jr., clocked a walk-off single in the morning game on May 7. Neither team has been able to gain much distance in the all-time series. Altoona is 125-129 since 1999 against the Double-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. Altoona will meet Bowie again after this series from July 24-27.

FOR ALTOONA: LHP Joely Rodriguez will start game two for the Curve against the Baysox. The southpaw is 4-6 with a 4.21 ERA in 15 games and finished June with a 4.22 ERA in five starts. Rodrigez has gone at least six innings in each of his starts last month and will try to continue the momentum into July. The 22-year-old last pitched against the Baysox on May 7 and picked up a no-decision despite a good outing where he lasted five innings and allowed just one run on six hits. Rodriguez was signed by the Pirates as a non-drafted free agent in 2009 from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. For more on Rodriguez, see page two.

FOR BOWIE: The Baysox will use LHP Tim Berry in game two of the series against the Curve. The southpaw has had an up-and-down season with a 4-4 record and a 4.03 ERA in 15 starts. In his last start he put up a quality outing on the road in Richmond but suffered the loss. Berry previously faced the Curve on May 7 and allowed four runs (three earned) on just four hits over 5.1 innings. Berry is a member of the Baltimore Orioles' 40-Man Roster and was origi- nally drafted by the Orioles in the 50th round of the 2009 MLB Draft.

FINELY TUNED ATHLETIC MACHINE: OF Willy Garcia pulverized Bowie in the first game of the series on Monday by by clubbing his second multi-home run game of the season. His 12 home runs are tied for the team lead with Stet- son Allie. Garcia had a great month of June where he batted a season-best .313 with five home runs and 15 RBIs. Defensively, the right field prospect racked up a pair of outfield assists in the first game of the June 21 twinbill with Portland to run his season total to 12. That mark is six shy of the franchise-record for outfield assists set by Starling Marte (18) back in 2011. Last season, Garcia led the Florida State League with 20 and set the Marauders franchise- record with that total.

FAMILAR FOES: Monday's game against Bowie was the first time Altoona faced an opponent from their own division since May 29 when the Curve wrapped up their series with the Richmond Flying Squirrels. The Curve are 19-32 against opponents from their own division this season. This month, Altoona will play almost all of their games against their own division with the exception three-game series in New Britain from July 21-23.

CATCHING FIRE: Curve catcher Elias Diaz is enjoying a breakout season in 2014 as he continues to play well both offensively and defensively. At the plate, Diaz is hitting .313 in 60 games, which includes his two hits on Monday as the Curve's primary catcher this season to go along with five homers and 32 RBI. Behind the dish, Diaz has commit- ted just three miscues this season and has shown a decent arm when throwing out potential base stealers (25-for-83, 30.1%)

ARM-AGEDDON Altoona's bullpen has made big improvements as the season has gone on and a couple right handers posted incredible June numbers. Ryan Beckman has an 1.35 ERA in ten games last month (2 ER, 13.1 IP) while submariner Kenn Kasparek has allowed only one earned run this season (0.84) which came on June 17 in New Hampshire.

GRINDER: Curve utility player Drew Maggi's RBI single in the sixth on Monday tied the game between the Altoona and Bowie and also his hit streak to seven games. The 25-year-old is riding the longest active hit streak for the Altoona Curve. His seven-game hit streak is the longest that the Arizona State product has had this season with five of those games coming on Altoona's previous road trip.

THIS IS HOW I DISAPPEAR: The Curve offense have struck out an Eastern League most 702 times this season, including nine times on Monday night, well ahead of the Harrisburg Senators who rank second with 655. In this Binghamton series alone, Altoona struck out 44 times in four games and are averaging over eight strikeouts per game. At the pace Altoona is on, they would strike out 1,216 times this season which would be the most in team history. The 2005 Curve team had the most strikeouts in a season with 1,081.

NO NO NO, NOT TODAY: The Curve pitching staff has done a nice job all season long of keeping the ball from leaving the ballpark. Entering play today, the Curve pitching staff has allowed the fewest home runs in the league with 42 over 693.0 innings so far this season. That's the fewest in the league after trailing the Portland Sea Dogs for most of the season, but Boston's Double-A affiliate allowed five home runs on Sunday in Reading and have 43 this season.

Check out the Altoona Curve Statistics



Eastern League Stories from July 1, 2014


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