EL1 Altoona Curve

Altoona Curve Game Information: May 15, 2014

Published on May 15, 2014 under Eastern League (EL1)
Altoona Curve News Release


ABOUT YESTERDAY: Altoona dropped game two to the Binghamton Mets 5-3 Wednesday evening at NYSEG Stadium in Binghamton, N.Y. With the loss, the Curve dropped to seven-games under .500 and are ten games back in the Eastern League's Western Division, the furthest they've been back all season. Altoona struck first in the second inning after Willy Garcia tallied an RBI single that plated Keon Broxton. The Curve tabbed another run in the third when Jarek Cunningham scored on a double play groundout by Gift Ngoepe. After Binghamton scored a run in the fourth to cut the lead in half, the B-Mets struck for three more in the fifth to take a 4-2 advantage. Altoona brought it back to within one in the sixth when Mel Rojas, Jr. scored on a single by Stetson Allie and an error. Binghamton added another in the seventh and dished Joely Rodriguez his team-high fourth loss of the year

CURVE/B-METS SERIES: Tonight's game marks the third game between the Curve and Mets this season and the final time the Curve will play at NYSEG Stadium. After this series these two teams will meet twice in June for a three- game series at Peoples Natural Gas Field. Altoona and Binghamton have only played 131 games against each other all-time but the Curve hold the slim advantage with 66 wins to 65 losses.

FOR ALTOONA: Altoona will send RHP Adrian Sampson in the series finale against Binghamton. The 22-year-old is 3-2 with a 2.27 ERA in seven starts in just his third professional season. In his last start, Sampson had the longest outing by any Curve pitcher all this season by lasting 6.1 innings and was pulled in the seventh with the Curve up 7-3. Unfortunately for Sampson and Altoona, the bullpen lost the lead late and Akron beat Altoona 9-7. The young pitcher ranks third in the Eastern League in ERA and will square off against Binghamton for the first time this season. Sampson was drafted by the Pirates in the 5th round of the 2012 Draft from Bellevue Community College in Washington. For more on Sampson, see page two.

FOR BINGHAMTON: The B-Mets will send LHP Darin Gorski to the bump tonight. Gorski is 3-1 with a 3.03 ERA in six games. The southpaw has collected four quality starts in his last five outings including his last start where he beat the Harrisburg Senators after he slung six innings and gave up two runs on seven hits. 2014 marks Gorski's third season with the B-Mets after he went 6-1 with a 1.83 ERA in 14 games last year with Binghamton. The Mount Joy, Pa. native was a 7th round pick by the New York Mets in the 2009 draft from Kutztown University.

HELPING HAND: Right fielder Willy Garcia collected his fourth outfield assist of the season in Wednesday's loss in Binghamton. With two outs, Binghamton's Matt Clark hit a double to right that scored a run but it would have been two runs had it not been for Garcia's fourth assist. Last season, Garcia led the Florida State League with 20 outfield assists. This year, the Eastern League leader in outfield assists is Akron's Tyler Naquin, who owns seven.

EASTBOUND AND DOWN: Altoona plays its first opponent from the Eastern League's Eastern division tonight when they take on the Binghamton Mets. It'll be an aberration more so than the norm for the Curve, who will go back to playing Western division opponents for the next four series following this one with the B-Mets. Altoona won't see another Eastern division opponent until the New Hampshire Fisher Cats make their only visit to Curve, Pa. at the end of May.

KEEP ON KEEPING KEON: Curve left fielder Keon Broxton has enjoyed the month of May, batting .432 in 14 games this month with five doubles, two triples, four homers and six RBI to go along with 14 runs scored. His 14 runs scored are ten more than he had in all of April (17 games) and he had a 10-game on-base streak end on Sunday due to a fly out in a pinch hit appearance. Broxton hit .146 in 17 games during April with no extra-base hits.

MAGNIFICENT MEL: OF Mel Rojas, Jr. was the team's primary cleanup hitter for most of the month of April before the arrival of Matt Curry before the series in Akron. He's been a solid producer no matter where he's hit. In the cur- rent series with Binghamton, Rojas is 3-for-9 with two doubles and three runs scored. In the 24 games that Rojas batted in the cleanup spot, he batted .278 with no home runs and 19 RBI. When batting third, Rojas holds a .364 average with two home runs and seven RBI in eight games.

WE WANT SOME 'MO: RHP A.J. Morris picked up his third win of the season on Sunday afternoon to tie him for the club lead with fellow starter Adrian Sampson. He went through his first 3.1 innings scoreless on Sunday did Morris before allowing a home run to Joe Wendle in the fourth, which ended his scoreless innings streak at 22 innings. That mark is a season-best for any Curve pitcher and fell 1.2 innings shy of the franchise-best mark that Derek Hankins put together in 2010 for the eventual E.L. champions.

LUCKY SEVENS: Altoona's seven-run third inning on Tuesday against Binghamton was the most runs the Curve scored in any game this season. Prior to that, the previous inning-high was four runs which the Curve accomplished six times. The offensive output that inning sent 11 batters to the plate and six of the seven base hits in that inning were for extra bases.

LEADERS OF THE PACK, VROOM VROOM: The following Curve players rank among the league leaders entering today's game with Binghamton: Alen Hanson (5 3B,1st), A.J. Morris (1.80 ERA,1st), Mel Rojas, Jr. (27 RBI, T-4th) and Adrian Sampson (2.27 ERA, 3rd).

APRIL SHOWERS BRING MAY FLOWERS: The new month has not only been good to Keon Broxton and Mel Rojas, Jr. but to many Curve players at the plate. Through 15 games this month, the Curve are batting .289 as a team which ranks second in the league behind only Akron. In the 22 games during the first month of the season, Altoona hit .235 as a team which was the second lowest in the league.

Check out the Altoona Curve Statistics

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Eastern League Stories from May 15, 2014


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