EL1 Altoona Curve

Altoona Curve Game Information

Published on August 7, 2014 under Eastern League (EL1)
Altoona Curve News Release


ABOUT YESTERDAY: The Curve dropped their second straight game when they fell in an afternoon contest to the Trenton Thunder, 7-3. Trailing 1-0 entering the third, Jarek Cunningham tied the game with a solo shot to left which knotted up the game. Stetson Allie then clubbed a two-run blast in the fourth to give Altoona a 3-1 lead (their first lead in the whole series) but starter Zack Dodson gave up a run in the fifth and sixth and left after six innings. Joely Rodriguez had a tough game in relief when he allowed four runs on six hits over two innings of work and suffered the loss. Both Dodson and Rodriguez struggled to retire Trenton's Greg Bird, who went 4-for-4 with two solo homers and tallied three runs in the game.

CURVE/THUNDER SERIES: Back in the Garden State for the first time since June, the Curve will conclude their series with the Yankees Double-A affiliate tonight. Last time they visited Arm & Hammer Park, the Curve claimed the series, 2-1. With the loss Wednesday afternoon, the team is one game under .500 (8-9) since 2011 here in Trenton. For the lifetime of the franchise, the Curve are 29-42 at Arm & Hammer Park but lead the all-time series 71-69.

FOR ALTOONA: Lefty Jhonathan Ramos will try to get the win for Altoona in order to avoid the sweep tonight. Ramos is 3-5 with a 4.84 ERA with time split between the bullpen and starting rotation for the Curve. The Venezuela native last appeared for Altoona on August 3 and earned the win versus Richmond after two shutout innings in relief. In his appearance prior to the Richmond game, Ramos went a season-best 5.2 innings and came within an out of his first quality start of the year but was pulled and ultimately suffered the loss on July 29 against Erie. As a starter this sea- son, Ramos is 0-2 with a 4.70 ERA. The southpaw was acquired as a non-drafted free agent by the Pirates in 2006. For more on Ramos, see page two.

FOR TRENTON: The Thunder will use righty Joel De La Cruz in the series finale this evening. This year with the Thun- der, Cruz is 3-2 with a 3.38 ERA in six games (five starts). The native the Dominican Republic began the year with the Thunder and appeared in five games during April and was promoted to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre at the start of May. During his time with the RailRiders, he appeared mostly as a starter for the first two months and went 2-5 with a 3.96 ERA during that time frame. He was put into the bullpen for most of July and didn't fare much better (1- 0, 6.32 ERA, six games, two starts). De La Cruz returned to Trenton at the beginning of the month and held Portland to just one unearned run on four hits over four innings on Saturday. De La Cruz was signed by the Yankees in 2006.

ELIAS SPORTS, HE'S IN THE GAME: Catcher Elias Diaz went 3-for-4 in the loss on Tuesday night to the Trenton Thunder to run his career-best hitting streak to 10 games. The Venezuelan native also homered on Tuesday, which was his sixth home run of the campaign. All six home runs for Diaz this season have come away from Peoples Natural Gas Field. Entering play today, Diaz is hitting .326, which is the second-best batting average in the Eastern League behind Matt Duffy of Richmond, who was promoted straight to the big leagues last week. Diaz did not play in Wednesday's afternoon game.

BIG WILLY STYLE: On the offensive side of the diamond, Willy Garcia has been no slouch since the All-Star Break. After winning the Ghostman Games for the West as part of the E.L. All-Star Stop, Garcia has gone on a tear in the first 20 games of the unofficial second half. In those 20 games, Garcia is hitting .377 (29-for-77) with eight doubles, four homers, 13 RBI and 13 runs scored. Since June 1, Garcia has hit .316 (62-for-196) with 25 extra-base hits (15 doubles, one triple and nine home runs).

HERE TO STAY: Josh Bell got off to a slow start after he was promoted to the Curve in the middle of July with a .111 batting average through his first five games. Since then, Bell has hit safely in 13 of his last 15 games including a two-hit, two-RBI day in the first game of this series. All told, Bell is hitting .286 with seven RBI through 20 games with the Curve.

FLIP FLOP: In Saturday's ballgame, Curve All-Star Alen Hanson got the start at second base for the first time since the 2011 season. The 21-year-old played in 100 games at short and committed 29 errors at the position, the most in the entire Eastern League. Since the move to second, Hanson has committed two errors, giving him a total of 31 this season. The 31 errors are just two shy of tying the Curve franchise record set by Kevin Haverbusch in 1999 and tied by Javier Guzman in 2006. Gift Ngoepe has taken over the duties at short.

POINT BREAK: The Curve are 13-7 in their 20 games played since the All-Star break entering play today. In those 20 games, the Curve have hit .298 as a team with Elias Diaz (.420, 13 G), Willy Garcia (.377, 20 G) and Gift Ngoepe (.339, 17 G) leading the charge. The team ERA during the stretch is 3.63.

GIFT'S GOING: Shortstop Gift Ngoepe has taken big strides with his bat this season. After entering 2014 with a career batting average of .228, the 24-year-old was right on par with that average for the first three months of the season. Since June 1, however, Ngoepe has been on a tear. The switch-hitter is batting .323 (33-for-102) which included a .326 average during July, the best average in a single month dur- ing his entire career when playing at least 15 games. With the mitt, Gift has been nothing short of excellent and has committed just one error in his last 35 games played.

THE BRAHMA BULL(PEN): A large part for the success of the Curve since the break has been the bullpen, who have a collective ERA of 3.00 in their 19 games since the break. They've given up fewer than a hit an inning (54 hits in 60.0 IP) and opposing hitters have hit .242 off them in the 19 games. Ryan Beckman (six games) and Kenn Kasparek (eight games) have not yielded a run in that time frame. Another major factor from that bullpen has been in late-game situations. After a blown save on July 17 in the first game after the All-Star break, the Curve 'pen hasn't blown any saves in nine opportunities.

TEN FEET TALL: All-Star closer Kenn Kasparek has been a rock at the back end of the Curve bullpen since re-joining the team from Triple-A in early June. In 21 games total this season in Double-A, Kasparek is 1-0 with 10 saves in 10 opportunities while boasting a 0.64 ERA. He's whiffed 26 in 28.0 innings while opponents bat just .160 off him.

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Eastern League Stories from August 7, 2014


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