EL1 Altoona Curve

Altoona Curve Game Information: July 25, 2014 at Bowie

Published on July 25, 2014 under Eastern League (EL1)
Altoona Curve News Release


ABOUT YESTERDAY: Altoona dropped the opening game of the four-game series to the Bowie Baysox 9-1 on Thurs- day night at Prince George's Stadium. It was a tough day in all departments for the Curve in the loss. Defensively, Altoona committed three errors which included two miscues in the second that led to five unearned runs. Jhonathan Ramos suffered a tough loss after he gave up eight runs (three earned) on nine hits over five innings. Offensively, the Curve tallied only five hits in the game. Altoona broke up Bowie's shutout bid when Dan Gamache roped a double in the seventh inning and All-Star Elias Diaz pulled a ball down the left field line that allowed Gamache to score the Curve's lone run.

CURVE/BAYSOX SERIES: The Curve will play game two of the four-game series to conclude the road trip at Prince George's Stadium. Altoona last came to Bowie at the beginning of the month and split the four-game series. The Curve battled the Baysox in the last homestand and split that four-game set. This season, the Curve and Baysox have played 12 total games and each team has won six games.

FOR ALTOONA: LHP Tom Harlan gets the start for Altoona in game two of the series against the Baysox. In his last start, Harlan suffered his first career loss in Double-A when he allowed just three runs to the Baysox on July 20 at Peoples Natural Gas Field. The southpaw began the year with the Bradenton Marauders as a reliever but was promot- ed to Altoona for the first time early this month and has pitched exclusively as a starter. Harlan has gone five innings in each of his three starts this year but entered the sixth inning for the first time in his career in that start against Bowie. The 24-year-old was drafted by the Pirates in the 13th round of the 2012 MLB Draft from Fresno State. For more on Harlan, see page two.

FOR BOWIE: Bowie All-Star LHP Tim Berry will start for the Baysox in game two against the Curve. The 23-year-old is 5-5 with a 3.65 ERA in 19 games this season but has been a tough pitcher to face this month. He holds a 2.25 ERA this month and looked sharp in his last outing against the Curve on July 20. He went seven shutout innings and allowed just three hits in Bowie's 3-0 victory in Curve, Pa. Berry was called up to the Baltimore Orioles for one day in early June but never appeared in a game with the O's. The California native was drafted by Baltimore in the 50th round of the 2009 MLB Draft from San Marcos High School.

DAYS GONE BYE: During the current road trip, the Curve are 2-2. After shelling out 35 hits in a two-game span in New Britain, the Curve offense was limited to just five hits in Thursday's loss at Bowie. In the four games played, Altoona has hit .304 as a team but the staff ERA sits at 5.55. Starting pitchers have had the biggest struggle in the four games with a staff ERA of 7.91 while the bullpen owns a 2.45 ERA.

TRIGGERFINGER: Altoona infielder Dan Gamache has been on a tear since joining Altoona during the early stages this month. The 23-year-old is batting .321 through his first 14 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. Gamache has also seen some time at third base for the first time in his professional career, but has committed six errors at the position.

WHAT LIES AHEAD Altoona RHP Adrian Sampson was named the Eastern League's Pitcher of the Week for his near no-hitter last Friday night versus Bowie. For Sampson, it's the first weekly Pitcher of the Week award in his career and it goes alongside his first All-Star nod, which he received a few weeks ago. After his no-hitter, Sampson tossed six innings to pick up his team-best ninth win of the year. Entering play today, Sampson ranks among the league leaders in ERA (2.60, 3rd), innings pitched (128.0, 1st), WHIP (1.06, 1st) and BAA (.228, 2nd).

WALK WITH ME: 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 16 games total this season in Double-A, Kasparek is 1-0 with six saves in six opportunities while boasting a 0.79 ERA. He's whiffed 24 in 22.2 innings while opponents bat just .181 off him.

FIVE DAYS WITHOUT ACCIDENT: Last night, the Curve committed three errors which led to five unearned runs in the second inning. The Curve currently ranks last in the Eastern League defensively with a .970 fielding percentage and a league-most 120 miscues. In 24 games this month, the Curve have had only five games where they have not made an error.

ARROW ON THE DOORPOST: The bell has rung for Pirates outfield prospect Josh Bell, who joined the Curve eight days ago. 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 .167 (5-for-30) but has hit safely in three straight games.

WILDFIRE: Through 24 games this month, the Curve are 12-12 and are bat- ting .287 as a team, the second highest average in the league. However, the staff ERA is 4.96, the highest in the league. With the win on Wednesday, the Curve have won 12 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. SAVE THE LAST ONE: Andy Vasquez appeared in his third game out of the bullpen in Thursday's loss in Bowie. The position player worked a scoreless inning and got all three outs via pop out. Vasquez last appeared as a pitcher for Altoona on July 10 against the Erie SeaWolves.

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