Curve give up too many homers in defeat
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Tonight: Binghamton at Altoona, 6 p.m.
Pitchers: Binghamton RHP Jose Chacin (0-2, 4.65 ERA) vs. Curve RHP Jared Jones (0-2, 3.00 ERA)
Radio: WRTA-AM 1240 & 98.5-FM
By Jarrod Prugar
For the Mirror
The Altoona Curve succumbed to the longball in a 10-3 defeat at the hands of the Binghamton Rumble Ponies Tuesday night in front of 3,063 at PNG Field.
Curve pitcher Aaron Shortridge yielded two runs in the top of the second inning, but was otherwise in control for most of his outing until the fifth inning when the Rumble Ponies broke the game open.
"He was actually pretty decent, but then he ran into trouble in the fifth inning," Altoona manager Callix Crabbe said. "The first guy got on base, next guy got on base, walked, base hit, base hit, base hit, then I made the move as he was starting to lose command. I wanted to give somebody else a chance to see if we could kill the bleeding."
The Agustin Ruiz grand slam off Shortridge was the straw that broke the Curve's back and they just couldn't recover.
"It was just one of those nights," Crabbe said. "They were hitting the ball well all night."
It was Luke Ritter's turn to take a Curve pitcher deep in the seventh as he knocked a Nick Dombrowski pitch over the right field fence. Ritter followed that up in the ninth inning with a solo shot off Altoona's Brad Case to give the Rumble Ponies a 10-2 cushion.
Showing poise
First baseman Matt Gorski went 3-for-4 at the plate making up three of the eight hits Altoona had on the night.
Gorski singled twice and doubled as well as scored the first run for the Curve. Gorski is now hitting .257 on the season.
"He's been trending. He's been swinging a hot bat," Crabbe said. "I think he's in a good spot, not over swinging. I think early on in the season, he started off bad so he started probably over swinging a little bit, but now he's letting the game come to him and he's doing a nice job right now."
Great Scott!
Altoona's Connor Scott continued his success at the plate going 3-for-4 at the plate against the Rumble Ponies.
The left fielder finished a home run shy of the cycle while also knocking in a run. Last week, Scott had five hits, all for extra bases while also knocking in nine runs.
Next up
RHP Kyle Nicolas gets the nod for tonight's matchup. Nicolas is 3-5 with a 4.65 ERA on the season.
In his last outing, Nicolas went five shutout innings and notched six strikeouts in a win against Hartford.