EL1 Altoona Curve

Altoona Curve Game Information: July 23, 2014 at New Britain

Published on July 23, 2014 under Eastern League (EL1)
Altoona Curve News Release


ABOUT YESTERDAY: Altoona got out to an early lead, relinquished that lead, but rallied late to defeat the New Britain Rock Cats 10-9 on Tuesday night at New Britain Stadium. Altoona came out firing on all cylinders offensively with five runs in the first which featured a two-run home run by Dan Gamache and back-to-back RBI doubles by Willy Garcia and Gift Ngoepe, the latter of whom brought in two. However, Joan Montero gave up a career-high nine runs over three innings in his start, but the bullpen followed with six shutout frames. The Curve rallied for three in the fifth inning thanks in large part to four hits to start off the frame and took advantage in the ninth against New Britain closer Matt Summers. Jarek Cunningham brought home the tying run with a one-out sac fly to center and Alen Han- son brought in the winning run when he lined a single which brought Ngoepe home. Ryan Beckman hung on in the ninth with the Cats putting the tying and winning runs in scoring position to notch his fifth save of the year.

CURVE/ROCK CATS SERIES: The Curve will conclude their series with New Britain today and are currently 2-3 against the Rock Cats this season. As a team, the Curve have hit .274 (.229 prior to Tuesday's victory) against the Rock Cats this season with Willy Garcia (9-for-20, 3 2B, HR, 4 RBI) enjoying the most success against them in 2014.

FOR ALTOONA: On the hill for the Curve in the series finale is RHP Adrian Sampson. The 22-year-old is coming off of arguably the greatest start by a Curve starting pitcher in franchise history. Sampson came two outs shy of becoming the first pitcher in franchise history to throw a nine-inning no-hitter but had to settle for the Curve's first one-hitter after Mike Yastrzemski sliced an opposite field double with two strikes. For his efforts, he earned Eastern League Pitcher of the Week honors, becoming the first Curve pitcher since Jameson Taillon in 2012 to win the award. Samp- son was drafted by the Pirates in the 5th round of the 2012 MLB Draft from Bellevue Community College. For more on Sampson, see page two.

FOR NEW BRITAIN: LHP Pat Dean will take the hill for the Rock Cats in the series finale on Wednesday afternoon. The southpaw has spent the entire season with New Britain and holds a 7-5 record and a 4.29 ERA this season through 19 starts. In his last start, the 25-year-old put up his seventh quality start of the year after he worked six innings and gave up three runs on seven hits to defeat Reading. Dean previously faced Altoona on June 24 and went deep into the game while earning a victory. He spun 6.2 innings and allowed only two runs (one earned) on seven hits and didn't walk a batter. Dean was drafted by the Twins in the third round of the 2010 MLB Draft out of Boston College.

BULLS ON PARADE: Altoona's bullpen was marvelous in Tuesday's come-from-behind win over the Rock Cats. With the Curve trailing 9-5 after three innings, Nate Baker shut down the Rock Cats for three innings and allowed just one hit and a walk. Jeff Inman earned the win in that game by working two shutout innings and All-Star reliever Ryan Beckman notched his fifth save of the season. During the current road trip, Altoona's bullpen has not surrendered a run over 8.2 innings and if you look back even further, the 'pen hasn't allowed a run since the first game after the All-Star Break on July 17, a streak of 17 consecutive scoreless frames.

DDRRIIAAANN: Altoona Curve RHP Adrian Sampson was named the Eastern League's Pitcher of the Week for his near no-hitter Friday night versus Bowie. For Sampson, it's the first weekly Pitcher of the Week award in his career and it'll go alongside his first All-Star nod, which he received a few weeks ago. Entering play today, Sampson ranks among the league leaders in ERA (2.58, 3rd), innings pitched (122.0, T-1st), WHIP (1.07, 2nd) and BAA (.230, 2nd).

A TURN HERE, WEDGE THERE: Altoona first baseman Stetson Allie has made a slight change in his batting stance over the last two weeks and in the early goings it seems to be paying off. Despite being held hitless two nights ago, Allie singled last night and has reached base safely in seven of his last eight games. If you look at Allie's numbers since June 1, he's been quite good. In 31 combined games, Allie is hitting .276 (31-for-112) with four doubles, four homers, 16 RBI and 15 walks.

TEN FEET TALL: Well, he's 6 feet, 10 inches tall, but regardless, 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 15 games total this season in Double-A, Kasparek is 1-0 with five saves in five opportunities while boasting a 0.84 ERA. He's whiffed 22 in 21.1 innings while opponents bat just .190 off him.

FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS: The bell has rung for Pirates outfield prospect Josh Bell, who joined the Curve Thurs- day night. Bell, 21, entered the 2014 season as the seventh-best prospect in the Pirates organization according to Baseball America and has lived up to the billing. In 84 games for High-A Bradenton, Bell was hitting .335 with 20 doubles, four triples, nine home runs and 53 RBI. More impressively, he only struck out 43 times in 84 games with Bradenton. He was named a Florida State League mid-season All-Star (his second overall mid-season All-Star nod of his career) and was selected to participate in the SiriusXM Futures Game this year in Minnesota. At the time of his departure, Bell was among the FSL leaders in average (.335, 2nd), RBI (53, 5th), hits (111, 3rd), slugging percentage (.502, 1st), extra-base hits (33, 4th) and total bases (1st). So far with Altoona, Bell is hitting .136 (3-for-22) with all of his hits being singles.

IT'S A LONG WAY BACK: Through 22 games this month, the Curve are 11-11 and are batting .285 as a team. However, the staff ERA is 4.98, the highest in the league. With the win on Tuesday, the team has won 11 games this month, the highest total of any month this season. The last time Altoona had a month where they finished above .500 was last July where the 2013 Curve finished 15-11.

GAMACHE PIT: Altoona infielder Dan Gamache has been on a tear since joining Altoona during the early stages this month. The 23-year-old is bat- ting .306 through his first 13 games and has already clubbed three home runs and 11 RBIs. He's been dominant on the road this year with all three of his long balls coming away from Curve, Pa. while all but one of his RBIs have come on the road too.

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Eastern League Stories from July 23, 2014


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