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Curve have no answer for Morris

Next stop

Tonight: Richmond at Altoona, 6 p.m.

Pitchers: Curve RHP OsvaldoBido (3-5) vs. Squirrels RHP Matt Frisbee (5-1)

Record: 51-45

Radio: WRTA-AM 1240 & 98.5-FM

By Cory Giger

cgiger@altoonamirror.com

Baseball is such a wacky game, which is proven pretty much every day in some fashion. Take, for instance, the Curve vs. Richmond over the past two days.

On Tuesday, Altoona’s offense was unstoppable with 16 runs and 20 hits in a 16-5 win.

A day later, the Curve offense couldn’t do much of anything and lost to the Flying Squirrels, 6-0, at Peoples Natural Gas Field.

Granted, it wasn’t the exact same Curve lineup in each game. Still, seven of the starters who took part in Tuesday’s outburst were back in the lineup Wednesday, yet the outcome was vastly different.

Little punch

The Curve managed only five hits Wednesday. Daniel Amaral ripped a pair of doubles, and the other three hits were singles.

In Tuesday’s rout, the Curve had 20 hits, and somewhat surprisingly, 18 of them were singles. So, the team had as many extra-base hits each of the past two games — two — but total hits and certainly run production were way different.

Curve manager Miguel Perez was not available after the game to speak on the differences between the two contests.

Strong pitching

Richmond starter Akeel Morris tossed seven shutout innings Wednesday, allowing five hits with five strikeouts and two walks.

Morris (5-0) is undefeated with Richmond, but he did enter the game with an elevated 5.17 ERA.

The Curve PR staff came up with a clever headline for its website after the game as, in a nod to Morris, it said, “Offense Akeel’s over in 6-0 defeat.”

Stats and stuff

Curve starter Trey McGough (4-4) took the loss, allowing three runs on four hits in 5ª innings, striking out one with two walks.

Reliever Noe Toribio allowed three runs on six hits over his two innings of work.

Joey Marciano finished off Richmond’s shutout with two scoreless innings of relief.

The Flying Squirrels bounced back in strong fashion with six runs on 10 hits. David Villar, Heath Quinn and Frankie Tostado had two hits apiece for Richmond.

Home woes

The Curve dropped to 24-25 at home and face the very real possibility that they could finish with a losing record at PNG Field this season.

Altoona has four games left in this series against Richmond, then will host Erie for six games from Sept. 7-12. The Curve will need to go 6-4 in those 10 games to avoid a losing record at home.

Altoona is 27-20 on the road.

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