Altoona Curve Game Information: June 6, 2013
Published on June 6, 2013 under Eastern League (EL1)
Altoona Curve News Release
ABOUT YESTERDAY...: A, 7-3, win by the Curve on Wednesday night secured a fourth-straight victory for the first time this season for the Curve club. Stolmy Pimentel (3-3) earned his first win since April 29 and tossed his first quality start in over a month (May 4) in the victory with six innings of three run (two earned run) ball. He struck out seven and walked just one to return to the form that saw him dominate the league in April and early May. Down 2-0 entering the bottom of the third, Altoona's offense went to work on Fightin Phils starter Seth Rosin (3-4), who allowed five runs in the frame to let the Curve take a lead for good. Andrew Lambo had the go-ahead hit with a two- run single through the right side to bring home both Andy Vasquez and Mel Rojas, Jr. Adalberto Santos also chipped in two RBI in a 2-for-4 day while catcher Carlos Paulino knocked in a run later in the game with a RBI double. Jhonathan Ramos and Jason Townsend combined for three scoreless, hitless innings out of the bullpen to keep the Fightins offense down on the mat.
CURVE/FIGHTINS SERIES: Altoona continues the season series with Reading here tonight in the final game of the scheduled three-game series. This is the first of two trips that the Fightins make to Altoona this season with the other coming August 19-21.
FOR ALTOONA: Leading the Curve on to the diamond tonight will be RHP David Bromberg, who's making his seventh start of the season, his second versus Reading, and his 12th overall appearance in a Curve uniform. Last time out, Bromberg was pitching on just four days rest on May 31 in Portland so he was limited in terms of how far he could go. The big righty from Santa Monica, Calif., allowed two runs in four innings (both runs in the fourth inning) while walking three and striking out thee to suffer his fifth loss of the season. He's had a tough time getting into a con- sistent pattern due to the many major league rehab appearances of pitchers in Curve, Pa., only making back-to-back appearances as a starter twice this season. In his only other start vs. Reading, Bromberg allowed four unearned runs on six hits in 7.1 innings with a season-high eight strikeouts. For more on Bromberg, see page two.
FOR READING: Phillies' top prospect Jesse Biddle take the hill tonight in the series finale and will be facing the Curve for a second time this season. In his only other appearance against the Curve, Biddle went a season-high 7.2 innings and did not allow a run while striking out nine and walking four. Biddle had a career day on April 22 at Har- risburg, striking out 16 batters in seven shutout innings. He followed that performance up with a 10-strikeout day in his next start on April 28 en route to securing the Eastern League April Player of the Month honors. Biddle has amassed 72 strikeouts in 61.1 innings pitched this season, which is third-most in the league entering play tonight. His team, however, ranks second to last in terms of total team strikeouts.
RIDE THE WAVE: The Curve picked up a fourth-straight win on Wednesday with the four-run victory over the Fightins to win four consecutive games for the first time this season. Altoona won the final two games in Portland and has technically secured a series win with a pair of triumphs over the Fightins in the first two games. While the Curve did lose the suspended game, that loss counts as falling on May 23 and also goes down in the books as a road-game loss and therefore does not factor into this current streak.
YOU OUGHTA KNOW: OF/1B Andrew Lambo singled in a pair of runs and was 2-for-3 with two runs scored of his own to run his on-base streak to 27 games in the process (started May 7). Entering play today, Lambo leads the league lead in homers (14), is tied for the league lead with 44 RBI and tied for fifth in the league for triples (four). His .565 slugging percentage is second in the circuit coming into action today as well. He's also reached base safely in all but three of his games played this season (54-of-57) and homered in five of his last seven games played dating back to May 29. If you're wondering where Lambo checks in throughout Minor League Baseball with his home run total, he is three behind the current leader George Springer of Corpus Christi (Texas League) who has 17. In terms of active players in the E.L., Lambo has the best HR/AB ratio entering play tonight at one homer every 15.43 at bats, just ahead of Reading's Cameron Rupp.
MEL'S DRIVE IN: Outfielder Mel Rojas, Jr. secured another two-hit game on Wednesday, going 2-for-4 with a pair of runs scored and a walk to help the Curve to their, 7-3, win. With the two hits, Rojas, Jr. now has his average up to .263, which is up from when he ended April at .226 after 24 games. Since May 14, the younger Rojas has hit .329 with five doubles, four triples, one home run and 12 RBI in 21 games. More specifically, he's hit in five straight games entering play on Thursday and in 14-of-16 since May 19.
WALKING ON SUNSHINE: Altoona secured its second walk-off win of the year thanks to Andrew Lambo's two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning on Tuesday night. Lambo is also responsible for the Curve's other walk-off win, which was a walk-off single to end a suspended game with Richmond from April 16 (the hit actually took place on the 17th). Even more impressive, it was the first walk off home run for a Curve player since Miles Durham hit a walk-off homer in the bottom of the 19th inning on August 13, 2010 to beat the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.
OUT OF THIS WORLD: Altoona's offense put on a clinic on Sunday after- noon in Portland, smashing a season-high five home runs in the win over the Sea Dogs. That total, however, fell two homers short of the franchise high that was set back in 2004 (June 19 vs. Erie). It was the second time this year that a duo of Curve players went back-to-back when Andrew Lambo and Jarek Cunningham did it to start the second. Cunningham and Alex Dickerson became the first players this season to hit multiple homers in one game in the win.
WELCOME HOME: The Curve are now in a nice stretch of games where they will play 12-of-15 games inside the friendly confines of Peoples Natural Gas Field. Only a three-game trip to New Britain from June 11-13 interrupts the 12 home games. In fact, the Curve play 15-of-27 games overall at home this month.
Eastern League Stories from June 6, 2013
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- Erratic Squirrels Drop Finale to Rock Cats, 9-4 - Richmond Flying Squirrels
- Curve-Fightin Phils Postponed on Thursday - Altoona Curve
- Senators vs. Baysox Postponed - Harrisburg Senators
- Sea Dogs Postponed By Rain - Portland Sea Dogs
- SeaWolves and Sea Dogs Postponed - Erie SeaWolves
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- Sea Dogs vs. SeaWolves - Game Notes - June 6, 2013 - Portland Sea Dogs
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- Minicozzi Named Eastern League Player of the Week - Richmond Flying Squirrels
- Golden Retriever "Chase" to Retire July 5 - Trenton Thunder
- B-Mets vs. Thunder - Game Notes - June 6, 2013 - Binghamton Rumble Ponies
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