EL1 Altoona Curve

Altoona Curve Game Information: July 7, 2014 vs. Erie

Published on July 7, 2014 under Eastern League (EL1)
Altoona Curve News Release


ABOUT YESTERDAY: Altoona rallied late to defeat the Harrisburg Senators, 6-5, on Sunday night at Peoples Natural Gas Field, sweeping the 'Sens in the three game series and it also gave the Curve their fifth straight win. Joely Rodri- guez labored in his start by allowing three runs in the first two innings before the Curve got on the board in the third on an RBI single by Justin Howard and a run-scoring sac fly by Stetson Allie. Harrisburg scored two more in the fourth to take a 5-2 lead. Altoona struck to within one in the sixth on an RBI double by Andy Vasquez that scored Allie and Vasquez scored one batter later on a fly out and throwing error. In the eighth, Gift Ngoepe laid down a sacrifice bunt to the pitcher Robert Benincasa, whose throw went wide of first and allowed Keon Broxton to score from first. Alen Hanson then provided the go-ahead run with a single to right. Ryan Beckman picked up his second win of the year af- ter two relief innings and Kenn Kasparek racked up his fourth save in as many chances by working a scoreless ninth.

CURVE/SEAWOLVES SERIES: Altoona begins a five-game series against the Erie SeaWolves that will be played in four days. Tonight's game marks the 12th meeting between the two clubs this season with the Curve winning four of the games so far. Tomorrow's game will be a doubleheader which features a makeup of Altoona's Opening Day rainout from April 5. This is the first time that the two teams have met since late May where Altoona lost three of the five games in the series at Jerry Uht Park. The Curve and SeaWolves have played 313 games against each other since 1999 and the Curve hold an all-time record of 156-157.

FOR ALTOONA: Curve All-Star RHP Adrian Sampson will start tonight for the Curve as he guns for his seventh win of the year. The 22-year-old is 6-5 with a 2.82 ERA in 17 starts this season and is coming off another solid outing on July 2 in Bowie where he picked up the victory when he allowed just one run over six innings. The win last Wednes- day was an important one after he struggled in his prior start where he allowed a season-high seven runs on 11 hits. Sampson was drafted by the Pirates in the 5th round of the 2012 MLB Draft from Bellevue Community College and is in his first season at the Double-A level. For more on Sampson, see page two.

FOR ERIE: Erie will send up RHP Wilsen Palacios to begin the series against the Curve. This season, Palacios is 5-4 with a 5.33 ERA in 16 games while opponents are batting .301 against him. In his last start on July 2, he went a season-high 6.1 innings and allowed three runs on seven hits while matching his season high with six strikeouts in Erie's 6-4 win versus Akron. The 24-year-old is in his first year at the Double-A level after he spent all of last year in the Florida State League with the Lakeland Flying Tigers. Palacios was signed by Detroit as a minor league free agent at the end of the 2013 season but has been a part of the Tigers system since July 2006.

ALL-STARS ANNOUNCED: This afternoon saw the announcment of the 2014 Eastern League All-Stars which features six players from the Altoona Curve. Tonight's starting pitcher Adrian Sampson and reliever Ryan Beckman are the two pitchers who will represent the Curve at the Eastern League All-Star Stop presented by UPMC Health Plan and are joined by catcher Elias Diaz, outfielder Willy Garcia, shortstop Alen Hanson, and utility player Drew Maggi. Sampson has been the staff ace this season and ranks third in the league with a 2.82 ERA while Beckman has allowed only two earned runs since June 1. Diaz has a .328 average which is the best among active catchers in the league, Garcia has 34 extra-base hits this season, and Maggi continues to get on base in several different ways and leads the Curve with a .390 OBP. All the aforementioned players are participating in their first career All-Star game while Hanson gets the nod for his third All-Star nomination. The Curve shortstop is batting .271 this year with an Eastern League best seven triples. The Eastern League All-Star Stop will be from July 15-16 at Peoples Natural Gas Field with the All-Star Clash between the East and West occuring on July 16 at 7 p.m.

HOW SWEEP IT IS: The Curve swept the Harrisburg Senators for the second time this season on Sunday night. The Curve hold a 5-18-4 series record and have also been on a tear by winning five straight games after they took the last two games against Bowie have tied their season-long win streak of five games that previously 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.

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 65 games, which includes his multi-hit games in six of his last nine games played. Diaz has also blasted five home runs (tying a career-high) and driven in 33 this season. Behind the dish, Diaz has committed just three miscues all season and has shown a decent arm when throwing out potential base stealers (28-for-90, 31.1%). He enters tonight's game riding a season-best seven-game hit streak and is hitting .519 (14-for-27) during his streak.

ARM-AGEDDON: Altoona's bullpen has made big improvements as the season has gone on and plenty of arms have posted incredible numbers re- cently. Ryan Beckman has an 1.47 ERA in his last 13 games while submari- ner Kenn Kasparek has allowed only one earned run this season (0.66 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 third in the league with eight holds.

CURVE MOVES: A pair of players have been activated from the Altoona Curve DL after wrapping up their rehabs with Jamestown. LHP Nate Baker returns to the Curve for his third straight year after he suffered a left teres major injury during Spring Training on March 22 and missed first two months of season. Along with him, infielder Dan Gamache is a newcomer to Altoona after he broke his right foot during spring training. Last season, Gamache batted .258 as the everyday second baseman for the Bradenton Marauders. Gamache was drafted by the Pirates in the 11th round of the 2011 MLB Draft from Auburn Uniersity. In a corresponding roster move, Curve outfielder Justin Howard has been placed on the DL.

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