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Victory keeps Curve on track; break looms

A few nights ago, the mood and trajectory surrounding the Curve season was headed in an ominous direction.

Starting pitching was bombarded in consecutive nights, and Altoona still had three games left against the best team in the Eastern Division. With the All-Star break beginning Monday, a bitter taste from an abysmal series would have several days to stew.

In just a matter of two games, however, the Curve trajectory has completely see-sawed, and spirits are high with just one game left before the break as Altoona bats awakened in a 6-4 victory over Trenton in front of 5,649 fans at Peoples Natural Gas Field.

“Being able to go into the break winning a series is really big for us,” Curve first baseman Will Craig said. “A lot of us have been playing a lot of games, so getting a few days off we can rest our minds, but it’s also knowing that we can come back and still be in a good running for the top two spots in the league.”

LHP Cam Vieaux (5-1) held Trenton to four runs in seven innings of work, while RHP Yeudy Garcia (1-1) recorded his third save of the season with two clean innings out of the pen.

Scoring has not exactly been a strength of the Curve over the past month, but a lack of offense against Trenton RHP Trevor Stephan (2-5) was not the case on Saturday.

Altoona was tied for last in the Eastern League in runs scored and had only scored over five runs in three of its last 21 games. To make matters worse, Trenton leads the Eastern League with the fewest runs allowed.

Despite those statistics, Altoona hopped on the scoreboard almost immediately with its first run of the night coming in the first inning.

“A lot of (the change) has been our mentality,” Craig said. “Even though (Trenton’s pitching on Friday) shut us down early, we still stayed aggressive. We’re being aggressive in the box and on the mound. Going from the first two games of the series to the next two, we just started executing better.”

Despite the team’s overall lack of success at the plate, the Curve have found steady production from 3B Ke’Bryan Hayes and Craig, something that continued in the fourth game of the series against Trenton.

Hayes reached base four times Saturday by way of a single and three walks and has eight hits against the Thunder in the series.

Craig highlighted his night with a 400 foot double off the centerfield wall and drove in two runs in the game.

Both players will be busy in the coming eight days as Hayes was selected to participate in the All-Star Futures Games as a part of the Major League Baseball All-Star break festivities, and Craig is one of eight participants in the Eastern League Home Run Derby.

“I’m a little nervous just because I haven’t tried to hit home runs consistently,” Craig said. “I’m more just along the lines of trying to barrel the ball. I’m pretty excited though, but we’ll worry about (Sunday’s) game first before I worry about (the Home Run Derby).”

Craig is currently on pace to hit 100 RBIs which would be second most in Curve history, trailing only Adam Hyzdu’s 106. He currently sits at 60 RBIs, good enough for second-best in the Eastern League.

While player movement near the MLB trade deadline may prove to be an extenuating circumstance that prevents a deep playoff run by the Curve, riding into the break on a positive upswing has the potential to lay the foundation for a strong second half of the season.

“We’ll see,” Curve manager Michael Ryan said. “We’ve got another one tomorrow. If we can get that one tomorrow against the best team in the Eastern Division, we’ll try to carry that momentum and get it going from there.”

Game recap

Key player: SS Cole Tucker had a triple, a double, a stolen base and 2 RBIs.

Key play: Alfredo Reyes flashed his super-speed, advancing from 1st base to score on a Tucker double.

Key stat: Will Craig pushed his season total to 60 RBIs.

How they scored

Top 1st: Holder tripled, scored on Fleming sac-fly (0-1).

Bottom 1st: Hayes singled, scored on Craig sac-fly (1-1).

Bottom 2nd: Hill hit by pitch, scored on Alemais single (2-1).

Top 3rd: Lidge solo homer (2-2).

Bottom 5th: Tucker walked, scored on Craig groundout (3-2); Hayes walked, scored on George single (4-2).

Top 6th: Bolasky singled, scored on Amburgey triple (4-3); Alvarez sac-fly scored Amburgey (4-4).

Bottom 6th: Reyes singled, scored on Tucker double (5-4).

Bottom 8th: Alemais singled, scored on Tucker triple (6-4).

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