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By Cory Giger
sports@altoonamirror.com
Sunday was one of those minor league games where the outcome didn't really matter, since the Curve and Pirates both won after only three innings.
That's because prized pitching prospect Quinn Priester finally was able to make his Double-A debut after overcoming an injury, and he did great work in his three-inning outing.
"Today was a big first step for getting the feet wet in this league, and just for confidence it's really good," said Priester, a 21-year-old righty who was the No. 18 pick in the 2019 draft.
Priester tossed three scoreless innings, giving up one hit with three strikeouts, and threw an impressive 26 of his 36 pitches for strikes.
The Curve offense did little on the day, aside from a solo homer by Matt Gorski, and Altoona lost to Erie, 2-1, before 4,541 fans on Father's Day at Peoples Natural Gas Field.
Strong debut
Priester, one of the Pirates' top prospects, was all set to start this season with the Curve, only to suffer some really bad luck with an oblique injury at the end of spring training. The very end of spring training.
"So frustrating," the pitcher said. "Just to be honest, like, it was the last day. Last day of spring, my bags were packed, and then unfortunately, you can't control injury type of thing. Then I had to stay in Florida for two months.
"It was really frustrating not being able to be with the team and the guys I feel I'm really close with. But that being said, at Pirate City, we got some really, really good work in."
Priester made his season debut throwing three hitless innings as part of a combined no-hitter for low-A Bradenton. But he got blasted in his next rehab outing for high-A Greensboro, giving up five runs on six hits in 2 2/3 innings.
His Curve debut went much, much better.
SUBHD: Next step
Starting his season so late has been tough, but Priester should begin rounding into form and being able to go longer into games before too long.
"There's still a lot to build on, obviously not going three innings," he said. "My goal is six, seven, eight. That second time through (the order) is going to be a big deal, so just being consistent and being able to do whatever I want, throw whatever I want in whatever count -- kind of like I did today -- is going to be really important.
"As long as I can keep that going and keep working on the things that are working now, I think I'm going to have a really good year."
SUBHD: Two tough days
Gorski homered for the Curve's lone run Sunday, after the team was shut out in a 7-0 loss Saturday night.
Gorski has 22 homers this season between two stops, tying him for the minor league lead with Erie's Kerry Carpenter, who also hit his 22nd homer Sunday.
Tahnaj Thomas (2-4) took the loss in relief, giving up the go-ahead run in the seventh inning. The Curve had only three hits off five Erie pitchers.
SUBHD: Hurdle on hand
A few hundred people stuck around for the postgame talk by former Pirates manager Clint Hurdle, who was on hand to sign autographs and talk about his faith as part of the Curve's "Faith Night" promotion.