EL1 Altoona Curve

Altoona Curve Game Information: July 2, 2014

Published on July 2, 2014 under Eastern League (EL1)
Altoona Curve News Release


ABOUT YESTERDAY: The Curve lost their fifth straight game after a 4-3 loss to the Bowie Baysox on Tuesday night at Prince George's Stadium. Bowie attacked Curve starter Joely Rodriguez in the second inning by scoring three runs against him but Rodriguez improved as the game went on and at one point retired ten in a row. Altoona responded back thanks to a Gift Ngoepe home run and Drew Maggi brought home a run thanks to a fielding error by the Baysox. In the sixth, Keon Broxton laced his first home run in almost a month that tied the game but the Baysox tacked on one more run in the bottom of the inning and held on to defeat the Curve.

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 2-3 this season against the Baysox this year 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 Rojas, 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 125-130 since 1999 against the Double-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles and will meet Bowie again after this series from July 24-27.

FOR ALTOONA: RHP Adrian Sampson gets the nod for Altoona in game three and will try to counter his roughest out- ing of the season. In that last start, Sampson was tagged for a season-high seven runs and tied a career-worst when he surrendered 11 hits on June 27 against Binghamton. Still, Sampson ranks among the league leaders in ERA at 2.90 which is good for fourth place in the Eastern League. In June, Sampson held a 4.91 ERA in five starts and had a 2-2 record. In that rough month, Sampson went at least six innings in every start except for June 5 when he tossed three frames against Portland before the game was suspended because of rain. Sampson was drafted by the Pirates in the fifth round of the 2012 MLB Draft from Bellevue Community College. For more on Sampson, see page two.

FOR BOWIE: The Baysox will toss RHP Zach Davies to the bump in the third game of the four-game series. The right hander has been progressing through the Orioles' minor league system and is 4-4 with a 3.69 ERA in ten games (nine starts) with the Baysox this year. Davies is in his third year playing as a professional and spent all of last season in High-A Frederick and his first season playing in Low-A Delmarva. The right hander did not make an appearance with the Curve after he hit the DL in early May because of shoulder tendinitis. Davies was drafted by the Orioles in the 26th round of the 2011 MLB Draft out of high school.

FINELY TUNED ATHLETIC MACHINE: OF Willy Garcia pulverized Bowie in the first game of the series on Monday by clubbing his second multi-home run game of the season. His 12 home runs are tied for the team lead with first baseman Stetson 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 19-33 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 of a 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 .318 in 61 games, which includes his multi-hit games in four of his last five. Diaz has also blasted five home runs and driven in 32 this season. Behind the dish, Diaz has commit- ted just three miscues all 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 single in Tuesday's loss in Bowie gave him a 1-for-5 day, but because he tallied a hit, he's now hit safely in eight straight games. The 25-year-old is riding the longest active hit streak for the Altoona Curve. His eight-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. Maggi's longest hitting streak in his career came in 2011 when he played for West Virginia and hit safely in 11 straight from August 22-September 2.

THIS IS HOW I DISAPPEAR: The Curve offense have struck out an Eastern League most 714 times this season, including 12 times on Tuesday night, well ahead of the Harrisburg Senators who rank second with 667. So far in this series, the Curve have struck out 21 times in two games. At the pace Altoona is on, they would strike out 1,222 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 to- day, the Curve pitching staff has allowed the fewest home runs in the league with 43 over 693.0 innings so far this season. That's tied for the fewest in the league with the Portland Sea Dogs. After those two teams, the club who has allowed the next fewest runs is Richmond with 50.

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