Squirrels Bullpen Silences Curve Bats in Saturday Loss
May 21, 2022 - Eastern League (EL)
Altoona Curve News Release
CURVE, PA - Andres Alvarez led off the bottom of the first inning with a solo home run, but the Curve could not strike against the Flying Squirrels bullpen in a 5-3 loss on Saturday afternoon at Peoples Natural Gas Field.
On the fourth pitch of his at-bat, Alvarez drove his team-leading seventh home run over the left field wall off Richmond (22-16) starter Bryan Brickhouse to extend his hitting streak to a season-long eight games. The shot marked a new career-high in home runs for Alvarez, who is hitting .379 (11-29) with a double, four home runs, and six RBI across the hitting streak.
Tucupita Marcano hit a solo home run in the bottom of the second inning for Altoona (17-21) off Brickhouse, his second of the year. Brickhouse settled in from there, going five innings and allowing just the two runs on four hits with six strikeouts.
Altoona tagged on a third run off reliever Frank Rubio in the sixth inning when Liover Peguero lined an RBI-single into right field to score Alvarez. It was the 25th run batted in this season for Peguero, placing him tied for fifth in the Eastern League. Altoona was then held to just two base runners and no hits across the final three innings from relievers Chris Wright, Ryan Walker, and R.J. Dabovich, who picked up his third save of the season.
Curve starter Luis Ortiz had the longest outing by an Altoona starter this season, going six innings and allowing four runs on five hits with five strikeouts. He did not allow a hit until the fourth inning and was scoreless until Rob Emery hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the fifth to tie the game 2-2.
Brandon Martorano hit a lead-off single in the sixth before Shane Matheny send a triple into the right field corner to give Richmond the lead for good. Matheny, who entered the game after Sean Roby suffered an apparent leg injury on the basepaths, scored on a sacrifice fly from Frankie Tostado in the next at-bat.
Brad Case delivered a scoreless seventh inning for Altoona before Tahnaj Thomas gave up one run in the eighth inning on an RBI-double from Jacob Heyward. Enmanuel Mejia threw a perfect ninth inning for the Curve.
The win was the second of the week for Richmond, bringing the series to a 3-2 mark entering Sunday afternoon. Nick Gonzales saw his eight-game hitting streak come to an end in the loss. Altoona has now hit a home run in seven consecutive games, dating back to last Saturday's loss to Somerset.
Altoona concludes their six-game series with the Richmond Flying Squirrels, Double-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, on Sunday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. RHP Gray Fenter (0-2, 3.28 ERA) will be on the mound for Richmond, while Altoona will send RHP Kyle Nicolas (0-1, 3.45 ERA) to the mound.
For tickets or more information, visit AltoonaCurve.com, call 877.99.CURVE or stop by the PNG Field box office. Additionally, the Stockyard Team Store is open Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., during every home game and online 24/7/365.
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