Wood Homers, Mcrae Deals Strong Outing But Curve Fall Late
August 5, 2016 - Eastern League (EL1)
Altoona Curve News Release
READING, Pa. - The Altoona Curve had a late lead slip away in a 6-3 loss to the Reading Fightin Phils in the series opener at FirstEnergy Stadium on Friday night.
Altoona (61-50) had its three-game winning streak snapped and had its Western Division lead trimmed to a half-game over second-place Harrisburg. Eastern Division-leading Reading (75-37) has won all four meetings against Altoona this year.
The Curve jumped ahead of Reading in the first inning with an RBI single by Edwin Espinal, bringing Erich Weiss in to score.
With a pair of runners still on base and one out, Reading starter Mark Leiter (Win, 5-1) struck out Jin-De Jhang before Eric Wood was called out on with automatic third strike, due to a pitch clock violation, to end the inning.
Wood extended the Altoona lead to 2-0 with a solo home run his next time up in the fourth inning.
Reading scored its first run in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Rhys Hoskins, the only run scored over six innings of work by Alex McRae, who finished with five hits allowed and matched a career-high six strikeouts.
Reading tied the game against Trey Haley (Blown Save, 1)(Loss, 0-1) in the seventh with an RBI double by Angelo Mora, who came in to score the go-ahead run on a throwing error by Haley on a sacrifice bunt attempt by Roman Quinn, putting the Fightin Phis ahead, 3-2.
Brett McKinney replaced Haley with runners at second and third and no outs, and escaped the jam with a pair of strikeouts.
Quinn padded the Reading lead in the eighth with an RBI single, and Scott Kingery followed with a two-run double to push the advantage to 6-2.
Wood, Anderson Feliz and Stetson Allie reached with three straight singles to open the ninth, and the Curve scored a run when Jon Schwind grounded into a double play. Miguel Nunez (Save, 14) retired Elvis Escobar to end the game.
Espinal finished the night 2-for-3 with an RBI and a walk. Wood went 2-for-4 with two runs scored.
Kingery and Quinn each had three hits for Reading.
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Eastern League Stories from August 5, 2016
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- Wood Homers, Mcrae Deals Strong Outing But Curve Fall Late - Altoona Curve
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- Blackmar and DeFratus Muffle the Thunder - Harrisburg Senators
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