Altoona Curve Game Information: June 29, 2014 vs. Binghamton
Published on June 29, 2014 under Eastern League (EL1)
Altoona Curve News Release
ABOUT YESTERDAY: Altoona nearly crawled out of a deep hole but fell just short in their 8-7 loss to the Binghamton Mets on Saturday night at Peoples Natural Gas Field. With the Curve trailing 7-0 in the bottom of the seventh inning, Altoona sent 12 batters the dish and scored six runs. Highlights from the inning included an RBI double by Elias Diaz that scored Justin Howard. The Curve catcher later scored on a wild pitch. Willy Garcia also had a key base hit in the inning that drove in Stetson Allie. After Binghamton got a run in the ninth inning to take an 8-6 lead, Altoona rallied back for another run in the bottom but couldn't capitalize with the tying and winning runs in scoring position and lost their 51st game of the season.
Zack Dodson took the loss after he allowed five runs over six innings of work.
CURVE/B-METS SERIES: Altoona will conclude the season series against Binghamton tonight in hopes of splitting the season set. The Curve won the first game of the series on Thursday 3-1 but the B-Mets have since taken two straight. Altoona currently trails the season series 5-4 after losing two-of-three in Binghamton last month,taking the three-game series at the beginning of this month by the same margin, and losing two games in this series thus far.
Tonight's game has bragging rights on the line with both teams winning 69 games against each other since 1999.
FOR ALTOONA: RHP Pat Ludwig will make his first start at home for the Curve in the series finale versus Bingham- ton. The 24-year-old is 0-2 with a 5.54 ERA in his three games with Altoona after he was promoted from Bradenton just over two weeks ago. In his only other appearance in Curve, Pa., Ludwig gave up three runs over three innings against Reading. During his stay with the Marauders, Ludwig appeared in 15 games (four starts) and went 2-1 with a 3.96 ERA. The right hander was drafted by the Pirates in the 10th round of the 2012 draft from Yale University. For more on Ludwig, see page two.
FOR BINGHAMTON: The B-Mets will use RHP Matt Bowman in the series finale and the 23-year-old is making his first appearance against the Curve this season. Bowman is 5-5 with a 3.72 ERA in 13 games this season with Binhamton. Bowman got off to a hot start this season by winning each of his first three starts in April and had a 1.04 ERA. In May, he couldn't get a single win in any of his six starts and had a 6.00 ERA. However, this month he is back to his early form with 2-2 record and a 2.84 ERA in his four starts this month. Bowman is in his first season with the Binghamton Mets and was drafted by the New York Mets in the 13th round of the 2012 draft from Princeton University.
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 .310 in 59 games, which includes three hits yesterday, as the Curve's primary catcher this season to go along with four homers and 31 RBI. Behind the dish, Diaz has committed just three miscues this season and has shown a decent arm when throwing out potential base stealers (25-for-82, 30.4%)
NOT TOO SHABBY: Joely Rodriguez' one-hit outing on Thursday versus Binghamton was the fewest hits a Curve pitcher has allowed in any start this season. As a whole, the Curve pitching staff in that game surrendered just three hits. The three hits was not the fewest that Altoona allowed this season. On May 6 in Harrisburg, Altoona surrendered just two hits in their 3-1 win over the Senators. The Curve also allowed only two hits in their wins on May 12 versus Richmond and on June 24 in New Britain.
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 the June 21 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.
CALL TO ARMS: Altoona's bullpen has made big improvements as the season has gone on and a few right handers have had incredible June numbers. Ryan Beckman has an 1.35 ERA in ten games this month (2 ER, 13.1 IP), Kenn Kasparek has allowed only one earned run this season (0.93) which came this month, and Emmanuel De Leon had just a couple rough outings but has not allowed a run in six of his eight appearances this month.
HANG OUT ON THE WEEKENDS: The Curve will wrap up their quick homestand with the tonight's game against Binghamton. However, the Curve have not fared in weekend games this season, owning a 2-15 record on Saturday's with just one win in nine games at home after yesterday's loss. On Sunday's, Altoona is 4-7 with a 1-4 record at home on that day.
M-A-G-G-I PUT MY NAME IS BOLD: Curve utility player Drew Maggi has hit safely in six straight games and is riding the longest active hit streak for the Altoona Curve. His six-game hit streak is the longest that the Arizona State product has had this season.
THIS IS HOW I DISAPPEAR: The Curve offense have struck out an Eastern League most 680 times this season, ahead of the Harrisburg Senators who rank second with 628. In this series alone, Altoona has struck out 31 times in three games and are averaging 8.5 strikeouts per game. At the pace Altoona is on, they would strike out 1,207 times this season which would be the most in team history. The 2005 Curve team had the most strikeouts in a season with 1,081.
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 42 home runs in 684.0 innings so far this season. That's second-fewest in the league only to Portland's 38.
Eastern League Stories from June 29, 2014
- Offense Stays on Track in Third Straight Win, 7-4 - Binghamton Rumble Ponies
- Altoona Bow & Arrowed by Binghamton in Series Finale - Altoona Curve
- Abraham Leads Explosive Akron Offense - Akron RubberDucks
- RubberDucks Pull Away to Split Series - Harrisburg Senators
- Bullpen Strong But Baysox Fall Short - Chesapeake Baysox
- Five Home Runs hit by Reading in defeat by Portland - Reading Fightin Phils
- 'Dogs Completes a Four-Game Sweep in Reading, Win 13-9 - Portland Sea Dogs
- Squirrels Remain a Sunday Wrecking Ball, 4-3 - Richmond Flying Squirrels
- Fisher Cats Complete Sweep for Sixth Straight Win - New Hampshire Fisher Cats
- Altoona Curve Game Information: June 29, 2014 vs. Binghamton - Altoona Curve
- Altoona Curve Game Information: June 29, 2014 vs. Binghamton - Altoona Curve
- B-Mets Game Notes: Game #81 - B-Mets (47-33) at Altoona Curve (29-51) - Binghamton Rumble Ponies
- Sea Dogs Game Notes June 29 at Reading (Game 81) - Portland Sea Dogs
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
