Altoona Curve Game Information
Published on May 15, 2013 under Eastern League (EL1)
Altoona Curve News Release
ABOUT LAST NIGHT...: Luis Sanz (2-1) spun 5.2 innings and allowed just two runs while striking out five to pilot the Curve by the Trenton Thunder, 5-3, on Tuesday night. Altoona jumped on the board first thanks to Andrew Lambo in the first inning when he drove in Adalberto Santos with two down. After Trenton took a 2-1 lead in the second, the Curve stormed right back with a two-out single by Carlos Paulino followed by a triple from Andy Vasquez. Mel Rojas, Jr. placed the Curve squarely in front for good in the third when he drove in two with the bases loaded. Sanz and the bullpen trio of Nate Baker, Kenn Kasparek and Jason Townsend allowed just one run the rest of the way in the two- run win. Townsend pitched a perfect ninth and picked up his second save in the process.
CURVE/THUNDER SERIES: Trenton visits Curve, Pa. for the first time this year with this three-game series Tuesday- Thursday. It is the first of three total series that the teams will play against one another in 2013. The Thunder will roll back into Peoples Natural Gas Field June 14-16 and the Curve will only make one trip to visit the Thunder (July 22-24).
FOR ALTOONA: Back to the hill for the Curve on Wednesday night will be RHP Stolmy Pimentel, who is coming off his roughest outing of the season last Thursday vs. Richmond. Pimentel had allowed just three earned runs all sea- son entering his last start with the Squirrels where he allowed six runs on six hits (both season-highs) in a season-low 4.1 innings pitched. Altoona still went on to win the game, 9-8, and improved to 3-4 in games that the San Cris- tobal, D.R. native starts this season. He'll match up with Trenton for the first time this season tonight, after making three starts against the Thunder last season as a member of the Portland Sea Dogs. In those three starts, Pimentel was 1-1 with a 7.80 ERA. For more on Pimentel, see page two.
FOR TRENTON: Taking the mound for the Thunder in Game 2 on Wednesday will be RHP Mikey O'Brien, who is making his second start this year for the Thunder after making six starts for High-A Tampa to begin the season. O'Brien reached the Double-A plateau in 2012, appearing in 20 games (19 starts) for the Thunder after a promotion early May. Last season, he faced off with the Curve on two different occasions and put up identical starts in both (two runs allowed in five innings). All told, O'Brien was 5-7 in his 20 games in Double-A in 2012 with a 4.20 ERA and an opponents batting average against of .267. This year, he went 1-2 with a 4.39 ERA in his six starts with Tampa before coming north. In his only outing at the Double-A level this season, O'Brien shut out the New Hamp- shire Fisher Cats over six innings while striking out five.
STREAKS AND VALLEYS: With the victory on Tuesday, the Curve have now won three straight games for the first time this season and have also won six of their last eight games following up a six-game losing streak. The win on Tues- day also secured a winning homestand for the Curve, which is the first winning homestand of the year for the club. A win today or in tomorrow's finale with Trenton would equal three straight series victories as well.
CHARLES IN CHARGE, AGAIN: It was announced on Tuesday that Pirates RHP Charlie Morton will once again don a Curve uniform and make a rehab start this Thursday in the series finale with Trenton. Morton, who is recovering from Tommy John Surgery, made a pair of rehab starts (1-0, 0.90 ERA, 10.0 IP, 1 ER, 7 K) for the Curve at the end of April before having his rehab moved to Triple-A Indianapolis. The New Jersey-born Morton was working in the fourth inning of his rehab start with Indy on May 3 when he felt some discomfort in his throwing shoulder, which was later diagnosed as shoulder tightness in his back. He threw a bullpen down in Bradenton on Monday and is set to go for Altoona on Thursday.
BIG LEAGUE CHEW: The Curve have had their fair share of Major League rehabilitation assignments or former Major Leaguers in their ranks for a few weeks now. Francisco Liriano made one rehab start for the Curve on Saturday, April 20 while reliever Jose Contreras also pitched for the Curve that weekend in Harrisburg on his way to Pittsburgh. Morton joined the Curve the following week for a pair of rehab starts on April 23 and 28 and was followed by Neil Walker's rehab appearance this past weekend vs. Richmond.
DROUGHT SEASON?: Altoona was held without a homer for the fifth straight game on Tuesday in the win over Tren- ton, which is uncommon for a team that has hit its fair share of homers to start the season. The Curve went homer- less in the series with Richmond, which was only the second time that it had happened this year. Altoona began the year homering in seven straight games and also ran off a six-game homer streak from 5/3-5/8.
HE EATS HIS WHEATIES: OF/1B Andrew Lambo drove in the first run of the game on Tuesday night and ended the day 2-for-5 in the Curve victory. The Newbury Park, Calif. native has reached base safely in all but three of his 38 games this season and leads the team in home runs, RBI, hits and is sec- ond on the team in walks. His seven home runs are tied for second-most in the EL while his 26 RBI are tied for fifth-most in the league.
ZACK ATTACK: Reliever Zack Thornton made his Curve debut on Saturday night in game two and worked out of a jam in the sixth inning to strand the tying runs on the bases for Richmond. Thornton is in his first season with the Pirates organization after being acquired this offseason for pitcher Chris Resop in a deal with the Oakland A's. The California native converted on three of six save tries with the Marauders before being promoted earlier this week. Last season with Stockton of the California League, Thornton registered 16 saves.
TAKING AWAY THE RUNNING GAME: Catcher Carlos Paulino has been a force to be reckoned with behind the plate this season, throwing out 41.7 percent (15-of-36) of base stealers in 2013 entering play today. That's third-best in the circuit behind Portland's Christian Vazquez, who has thrown out 50 percent (18-of-36) of base stealers, and Trenton's J.R. Murphy (46.7%).
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