Curve Complete Sweep, Defeat Aeros 6-1
August 5, 2010 - Eastern League (EL1)
Akron RubberDucks News Release
ALTOONA, PA - Akron matched a season-high with a sixth straight loss Thursday as the Altoona Curve finished a four-game sweep with a 6-1 victory at Blair County Ballpark. Despite just one earned run charged against Aeros pitchers Kelvin De La Cruz and Nick Hagadone in front of the crowd of 4,316 fans, the offense again could not muster enough support. Altoona improved to 65-46 with the win while fourth-place Akron fell to 56-54 on the season, 4.5 games behind the wild card-leading Bowie Baysox.
Lefty starters De La Cruz and Altoona's Tony Watson combined to retire the first 21 batters of the contest before a big bottom of the fourth inning. Josh Harrison reached base on a one-out hit by pitch, stole second and third base before scoring on an RBI single from Matt Hague. After a throwing error from De La Cruz, two singles, a balk and a walk followed to give the Curve a quick 4-0 advantage.
Right fielder John Drennen recorded the first Aeros hit in the fifth but Watson cruised through his six frames. Reliever Ramon Aguero entered in the seventh and after stranding a runners, Akron rallied in the eighth. Second baseman Jason Kipnis walked with one out with a runner on first and Lonnie Chisenhall singled to center, scoring Cristo Arnal.
Andrew Lambo singled to start the bottom of that eighth while a throwing error by Chisenhall extended the lead to 5-1. Two batters later, Hagadone permitted an RBI infield single to Yung Chi Chen to provide for the final run of the game.
Watson (4-1) allowed just two hits in his six scoreless frames while earning the victory, striking out three batters in his third start of the year. De La Cruz (4-6) took the loss in allowing four runs (one earned) in his five innings, walking one with five strikeouts but his error was the crucial difference. Hagadone then permitted two more unearned runs with two strikeouts in his three innings pitched because of Chisenhall's error in the eighth.
Drennen and left fielder Tim Fedroff each collected a pair of hits on the night while Akron finished with only seven runs and 24 hits in the series. The Aeros had gone 36-18 in a stretch from May 31st through July 30th, but have struggled thus far in the month of August.
Akron's weeklong road trip continues Friday night at 7:05 p.m. as the team heads over to Connecticut for the start of a three-game series against the New Britain Rock Cats. Aeros starter and nearby Chicopee, MA native Scott Barnes (5-8, 5.16 ERA) makes the start at New Britain Stadium against Chris Province (5-3, 4.91 ERA) of the Rock Cats. Join Ken Carman for Friday's radio broadcast beginning at 6:50 p.m. on Fox Sports 1350 AM and at www.akronaeros.com. For more information, please call the Aeros at (330) 253-5151.
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Eastern League Stories from August 5, 2010
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