After the final out of Friday’s 5-3 Curve win over Portland, famous scenes from sports movies such as ‘Rudy’ and ‘Angels in the Outfield’ were shown on the scoreboard.

It was a humorous touch by the Curve scoreboard crew, which was the Curve’s first win in 13 games to start the season.

It was a fun moment for the 4,243 in attendance at Peoples Natural Gas Field, and equally as exciting for the players in the clubhouse.

Curve first baseman Callan Moss, who had a pair of run-scoring singles in the game, said the team jokingly had sage burning in the clubhouse like the Cleveland Indians did in another famous sports movie.

“We were talking about it yesterday. We said, ‘We have to go ‘Major League’ on them,'” Moss said jokingly.

Although the comedy was a lighter way to end the 12-game losing streak, it was clearly a sigh of relief for players and for manager Andy Fox.

“Obviously you don’t want to start the season like this,” Fox said. “It was nice to get off the schneid tonight. It was a complete team win. We pitched. We had timely hitting. We played pretty good defense, for the most part. We were able to score more than they did.”

Moss put the Curve on the board in the first inning on an RBI single that scored Mitch Jebb.

Portland put up a run each on solo homers in the third and fourth inning, but Moss did damage once again with a single to plate Jebb again to tie the game.

“It was good to see him slow the game down and not try to do too much in those situations,” Fox said.

“I always say I want to lead every league I’m in in RBIs,” Moss said. “I haven’t been playing up to par. Tonight was a step in the right direction.”

After Portland tied it up again in the top of the sixth, the bottom of the Curve lineup in Shawn Ross, Jesus Castillo and Javier Rivas all walked.

This time, Jebb came through with a base hit to score Ross. Keiner Delgado followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 5-3.

For the second night in a row, the Curve bullpen of Dominic Pipkin, Jarod Bayless, and Emmanuel Chapman was solid with five innings and allowing just one earned run.

Altoona starter Po-Yu Chen worked the first four innings and allowed just the two solo homers, walked three and struck out four on 64 pitches.

“It’s a big weight off the guys’ shoulders,” Moss said. “We know who we are as a team. Individually we have some great guys on the squad. You get in the hole early, and sometimes it’s hard to break out of it. I think it’s all uphill from here.”

Arias goes deep again

Franklin Arias, the Boston Red Sox No. 2 prospect according to MLB, homered off the Curve for the third time this week.

Arias is hitting .538 on the season, and is notably tearing the covering off the ball this week. He was on deck when the final out was recorded.

“I was glad he didn’t come up in the ninth,” Fox said. “He’s a really good player. He’s a really talented kid. You can see the upside. We just have to find a way to get him out.”

Former Pirate makes rehab

Former Altoona Curve alumnus and current New York Yankee Gerrit Cole made a rehab appearance for Double-A Somerset against Reading on Friday night.

Cole, who also made appearances in spring training, went 4+ innings and allowed three earned runs on three hits, walked one and struck out three.

Up next

The Curve and Sea Dogs will start a couple hours earlier today with a 4 p.m. first pitch. Lefty Dominic Perachi will start for the Curve against Portland right-hander John Holobetz.

Sunday’s series finale is a 1 p.m. first pitch with Khristian Curtis getting the ball.