EL1 Altoona Curve

Altoona Curve Game Information: June 24, 2014

Published on June 24, 2014 under Eastern League (EL1)
Altoona Curve News Release


ABOUT YESTERDAY: Altoona got off to a good start and survived a scoring threat in the ninth in the, 4-3, victory versus the New Britain Rock Cats last night at New Britain Stadium. The Curve scored two runs in the first inning thanks to an RBI sac fly by Elias Diaz and a run-scoring single from Matt Curry. After the Rock Cats scored one run in the second and third innings to tie the game at two, Altoona plated their final runs in the fourth inning. With one out, Curry singled to set the stage for Willy Garcia, who bashed a home run to left field on the second pitch he saw from former Pirates pitcher Virgil Vasquez . In the ninth, Jhonathan Ramos surrendered a run and was pulled for Ryan Beckman with the tying run on base. Beckman induced a groundout, intentionally walked the next batter, then got Reynaldo Rodriguez to pop out in foul territory to end the game. Zack Dodson earned the win for the Curve after he spun his second quality start of the season.

CURVE/ROCK CATS SERIES: Altoona and New Britain continue their series with game two of the three game set. After this series, the two teams will meet again in Connecticut from July 21-23 and for the final time in the 2014 season from August 22-24 at Peoples Natural Gas Field. The Curve are 57-44 against the Twins' Double-A affiliate all-time.

FOR ALTOONA: RHP Pat Ludwig will make his third appearance since his promotion to Altoona on June 12 from High-A Bradenton. The Yale product is 0-1 with a 4.50 ERA in his two career Double-A games. Ludwig made his first start with the Curve on Thursday in New Hampshire where he gave up just one run on six hits over five innings. Dur- ing his time with Bradenton, Ludwig pitched primarily out of the bullpen and went 2-1 with a 3.96 ERA in 15 games (four starts). The 24-year-old was drafted by the Pirates in the tenth round of the 2012 draft. For more on Ludwig, see page two.

FOR NEW BRITAIN: The Rock Cats will use LHP Pat Dean in game two of the series versus Altoona. Dean is 5-2 with a 4.48 ERA in 14 starts with New Britain. The 25-year-old has won three of his last four starts including his last start where he defeated Harrisburg by holding them to four runs (three earned) over six innings on Thursday. Last season, Dean appeared in two games against the Curve and was winless (0-1, 7.83) in the two times he faced the Curve in June of 2013. Dean was a non-drafted free agent by the Twins and has been part of Minnesota's farm system since 2010.

THE ONEDERS: With Monday night's win in New Britain, the Curve have won back-to-back one run games on the road for the first time this season. Entering Sunday afternoon's finale with Portland, the Curve had been 0-12 in one- run games away from Peoples Natural Gas Field.

MATTY ICY HOT: 1B/DH Matt Curry is heating up during the long trip away from Curve, Pa. In eight games (seven starts) not including the resumption of the suspended game, Curry is hitting .346 (9-for-26) with a double, triple and a pair of runs scored.

I THINK THIS MIGHT BE SOME KIND OF A RECORD...: OF Willy Garcia racked up a pair of outfield assists in the first game of Saturday night's 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.

DID YOU REMEMBER TO FILL UP THE GAS TANK?: The Curve will continue their longest road trip of the season with the early-week series here in New Britain. So far on the trip, the Curve are 3-5 in the eight games that count in the date range. It's part of an overall stretch where the Curve are playing a plethora of games away from home (14- of-18) before going into a seven-game homestand in early July. The Curve do return home this Thursday for a brief four-game series with the Binghamton Mets before heading back out to Bowie for a four-game set.

I AM TITANIUM: 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 .304 in 55 games as the Curve's everyday catcher this season to go along with four homers and 28 RBI. Behind the dish, Diaz has committed just two miscues this season and has shown a decent arm when throwing out potential base stealers. In five games on this road trip, Diaz is 7-for-17 (.412) with a homer and three RBI.

THE TREBLEMAKERS: As a result of the benches clearing incident on Wednesday night in Manchester, Keon Brox- ton, Jarek Cunningham and Gift Ngoepe were all ejected from the game. Each of them plus Andy Vasquez and Yao- Hsun Yang received three game suspensions from the Eastern League. Cunningham, Ngoepe and Yang have all served their suspensions while Broxton and Vasquez will miss the first two games of this series to finish serving their three-game misconduct penalties. Every member of the team that left their position was also fined. A total of six players plus the manager of the Fisher Cats, Bobby Meacham, were ejected on the other side of the scuffle.

NUMBER ONE STUNNA: Adrian Sampson once again tossed seven innings on Sunday afternoon and racked up his fifth win of the season to tie him for the team lead with the departed A.J. Morris. Sampson, who has been the team's most consistent starter in 2014, gave up four runs in his seven in- nings of work on Sunday (which tied a season high) but he was able to pick up the win regardless. Sampson's ERA took a bit of a hit in the game, rising to 2.39, but is still second in the league behind Portland's Henry Owens.

THE HIGH NOTES: 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 37 home runs in 641.0 innings so far this season. That's second-fewest in the league only to Portland's 33.

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