EL1 Altoona Curve

Curve match season-high with fourth straight victory

Published on July 27, 2005 under Eastern League (EL1)
Altoona Curve News Release


ALTOONA-- Rajai Davis became the first Curve player this season to record five hits in a game and the club's offense plated a season-high 14 runs in a 14-8 victory over the Binghamton Mets Wednesday night at Blair County Ballpark.

Davis went 5-for-6 in the contest and became just the sixth player in Curve history to post five hits in a game. The five-hit game was the second of his career and led an 18-hit Altoona attack--one shy of the 19 the club recorded on July 16th at Harrisburg.

Altoona (53-49) matched a season high with its fourth consecutive victory, including the third straight over Binghamton in the series. The Mets dropped to 44-55 on the season, including a league-worst 18-30 on the road.

Matt Peterson (9-6) enjoyed plenty of run support in picking up his ninth win of the season. The right-hander surrendered a season-high 10 hits, but recorded his top strikeout total of the season with seven. Peterson, who pitched for the Binghamton Mets before being traded to the Pirates in a five-player deal last July, gave up six runs--five earned--in his 5 1/3 innings of work.

Peterson also recorded one of the game's key hits, chopping a go-ahead, two-run single into left field off of Mets' starter Yusmeiro Petit as part of a six-run Curve fourth inning that broke the game wide open. Peterson's single gave Altoona its first lead of the game at 4-3 after the Mets had grabbed an early 3-0 advantage.

Craig Stansberry blasted a three-run homer off Petit to close out the Curve's six-run fourth and give them a commanding 8-3 lead. Petit, the New York Mets' top-rated minor league pitching prospect, suffered his worst outing of the season, giving up eight runs over four innings of work. Petit, who entered the game with just 12 walks in his first 82 2/3 innings this season, walked four batters as part of the inning.

The Mets' bullpen didn't fare much better, as middle relievers Anderson Garcia and Jeremy Hill were tagged for six more runs between the fifth, sixth and seventh frames.

In addition to Davis' five hits, the Curve got three apiece from Howie Clark and Jorge Cortes, as well two from Josh Bonifay, who recorded triples in consecutive at-bats in the sixth and seventh innings to extend his team-high hitting streak to six straight games.

Corey Ragsdale and Zac Clements each had three of Binghamton's 15 hits in the loss. Mike Jacobs opened the scoring in the game with an opposite-field, two-run homer in the top of the first--his 20th of the season. David Bacani also homered in the loss.

The Curve will look to complete a series sweep of the B-Mets in the final game of the four-game set Thursday afternoon at Blair County Ballpark. Left-hander Tom Gorzelanny (4-5, 3.38) will square off against Binghamton right-hander Orlando Roman (3-8, 4.38) in the Noon contest.

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Eastern League Stories from July 27, 2005


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