Altoona Curve Game Information: July 6, 2014 vs. Harrisburg
Published on July 6, 2014 under Eastern League (EL1)
Altoona Curve News Release
ABOUT YESTERDAY: Altoona used a five-run first inning and ultimately defeated the Harrisburg Senators 7-4 Satur- day night at Peoples Natural Gas Field. After the 'Sens plated the first run of the game off of Joan Montero, the righty settled in and only allowed three more hits in the rest of his outing to register his third win in his first ever quality start. The five-run first inning began with a leadoff home run by Alen Hanson that tied the game at one and continued thanks to a two-out error by Matt Skole. With Altoona leading 2-1 thanks to the miscue, Keon Broxton belted a two- run double and Kelson Brown capped the inning with an RBI single. The Curve added two more in the fourth which began on a leadoff homer by Broxton and included an Elias Diaz RBI. Jason Townsend entered in the eighth inning and recorded a four-out save to give the Curve their fourth straight win.
CURVE/SENATORS SERIES: Altoona continues their lengthy homestand with the series finale against Harrisburg tonight. The Curve have had the Senators' number this season with a 7-1 record against Harrisburg entering play today and hold the all-time advantage with a 155-128 record. Altoona swept the Nationals' Double-A affiliate in a four-game series when they were in town in late-April and split a rain-shortened series at Metro Bank Park in the middle of the first month. After this series, the Curve will play five games in four days against the Erie SeaWolves and then travel to Harrisburg before the All-Star Break.
FOR ALTOONA: LHP Joely Rodriguez will start the series finale against the Senators. Rodriguez is 4-7 with a 4.38 ERA in 16 starts. The 22-year-old southpaw has struggled to find consistency this season and is coming off a tough outing where he allowed four runs on five hits over five innings. Rodriguez has yet to pick up a victory by throwing less than six innings and has not put up back-to-back quality starts this year. He was added to the Pirates 40-Man roster this offseason and was signed by Pittsburgh from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic in 2009. For more on Rodriguez, see page two.
FOR HARRISBURG: The Senators will send RHP Brian Dupra to the bump against the Curve in the series finale. The Rochester, N.Y. native is 1-3 with a 5.04 ERA in 11 games (five starts) with the Senators. Dupra has tallied plenty of time on the road with stays in three different parts of the Nats system. He began the season with their High-A affiliate in Potomac for five games before a cup of coffee with Harrisburg on April 28. After that one appearance, he went back to Potomac for a game before a second call-up to Double-A where he stayed with the Senators for six games and then moved up to Triple-A Syracuse for a sport start on June 10. Then, he was transfered back to Harrisburg where he has stayed since. Since returning, Dupra is 0-2 with a 5.79 ERA in four starts. Dupra was acquired by the Nationals in the seventh round of the 2011 MLB Draft from the University of Notre Dame.
HOW SWEEP IT IS: The Curve have already took the series by defeating the Senators in the first two games and will try for the three-game sweep tonight. Altoona has only one sweep this season and it was against Harrisburg in April. The Curve hold a 5-18-4 series record which includes this series win. The Curve have also been on a tear by winning four straight games after they took the last two games against Bowie and are one win shy of tying the season-long win streak of five games that occured from April 21-25.
THE ANNUAL TRADITION CONTINUES: Altoona's 4-2 win on July 4 occured in front of a season-high 8,845 fans at Peoples Natural Gas Field. That attendance shattered the previous season high of 7,000 set on June 15. Friday's game at the ballpark also finished as the sixth highest crowd in franchise history, passing the previous No. 6 spot of 8,836 on August 5, 2006.
HOPPIN' HOWIE: Justin Howard's pinch hit home run for the Curve on July 4 was his third home run of the season and it led Altoona to a 4-2 victory. The pinch-hit blast was also the first time a Curve player has accomplished this feat since 2010 when Brandon Jones did it on July 17, coincidentially enough, against the Harrisburg Senators.
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 .328 in 64 games, which includes his multi-hit games in six of his last eight games played. Diaz has also blasted five home runs (tying a career-high) and driven in 33 this sea- son. Behind the dish, Diaz has committed just three miscues all season and has shown a decent arm when throwing out potential base stealers (26-for-85, 30.6%). He enters tonight's game riding a modest five-game hit streak and has tallied 12 hits in his last five games (12-for-20).
ARM-AGEDDON: Altoona's bullpen has made big improvements as the season has gone on and plenty of arms have posted incredible numbers recently. Ryan Beckman has an 1.65 ERA in his last 12 games while submariner Kenn Kasparek has allowed only one earned run this season (0.71 ERA) which came on June 17 in New Hampshire. With his success, Kasparek has turned into the Curve's late-inning, go-to guy.
Emmanuel de Leon has a 2.70 ERA in 26 games and ranks eighth in the league with eight holds.
ELECTRIC FENCES: 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 second fewest home runs in the league with 46 over 745.0 innings so far this season. The Portland Sea Dogs have allowed the fewest long balls this season with 44 over 741.2 IP.
CURVE MOVES: Prior to yesterday's game against Harrisburg, the Pittsburgh Pirates promoted RHP John Holdzkom to Triple-A Indianapolis. Holdzkom was 1-0 and never allowed a run in his four appearances with the Curve. Holdzkom owned the league in his brief stay with the Curve by striking out ten over six innings and holding opponents to a .056 batting average. The Curve roster currently has 24 players plus four men on the DL. The 24-man roster is one shy of the Eastern League maximum.
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