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By Cory Giger
sports@altoonamirror.com
The Curve have entered the All-Star break in first place, riding a four-game winning streak and playing their best ball of the season.
"We feel like we're the best team (in the league)," Curve home run leader Aaron Shackelford said following Sunday's 8-3 win over Richmond before 4,168 fans at Peoples Natural Gas Field.
The victory gave Altoona a 12-6 record in the second half of the Eastern League season, and a half-game lead over two other teams in the Southwest Division heading into a four-day break.
Coming around
There has been a lot of roster turnover on this year's team, which was expected to be one of the most talented in all the minor leagues with a slew of highly rated prospects.
But the full team everyone had hoped to see never really got to play together because of injuries, roster moves and so on, leading to a mixed bag of results during a 33-36 first half.
All records reset at the midway point, however, and since then, the Curve have played outstanding ball.
"I think the last two or three weeks, we've just gotten comfortable in the environment, and we're kind of just ready for every game," third baseman Jared Triolo said.
"We know what to expect, and we kind of bring our A game every day."
A lot of what we've seen lately was expected from the Curve when the season began three months ago.
"I think our expectations coming in were that we're really talented, and I think we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to perform," Shackelford said.
"And now we're playing with confidence and free and not putting pressure on ourselves."
Getting to hit the reset button for the second half -- and then getting off to the strong start -- has put the team in position to compete for a division title and playoff berth.
"We feel like we weren't playing to our full potential in the first half," Shackelford said. "So we get to reset and actually be the best with the best record."
Strong start
The Curve jumped out to a big lead early Sunday, scoring four runs in the third inning for a 5-1 cushion. Matt Fraizer hit a two-run homer in the frame.
Triolo belted a two-run homer in the sixth inning to push the lead to 8-2.
All of that was plenty of support for starter Carmen Mlodzinski and the pitching staff. Mlodzinski (3-5) gave up two runs on four hits over five innings for the win, striking out four with one walk.
Fabricio Macias went 2-for-3 with three RBIs for the Curve and is batting .357 since joining the team.
Time for break
The Curve get four days off, then will return to action Friday to begin a three-game series at Harrisburg. Then they'll play six games at Bowie.
So, the club will not return home for two weeks, on Aug. 2.
As well as the team has been playing, it might have been nice to keep going without the days off for the All-Star break. In theory, anyway.
But the players always want time off whenever they can get it, so they're thrilled to be getting the break.
"It's good for us," Triolo said. "It's going to be kind of a chance to reset again and get some fresh legs."
"This is a great time (for a break)," Shackelford said. "We're destroyed. We're ready to build back up, and we're going to be even better."