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By Jarrod Prugar
The Associated Press
An impressive start by Anthony Solometo got spoiled by a struggling bullpen as the Altoona Curve fell to the Bowie Baysox 7-6 in front of 4,171 at PNG Field Friday night.
Solometo, in only his second Double-A start, went five innings striking out six while walking one and allowing only two hits.
"It was nice being in Altoona feeling the fan support," Solometo said. "I had people coming up to me all week telling me welcome and good job. It's just great energy so coming in here, I knew no matter what happened, I was gonna have the support of the town and it made everything a lot easier."
It was another impressive start from the 6-foot-2 lefty who was picked in the second round of the 2021 MLB Draft.
"He just attacks. When he goes to his glove side, he uses a really good slider, it's short but it gets the hitters off the heater," Curve manager Callix Crabbe said. "He hides the ball really well, really deceptive."
Solometo left the game up 5-0 with his first Double-A win seemingly in hand before things went terribly wrong for the Curve and the bullpen.
"It's tough to have a 5-0 lead and then end up losing a game by one," Crabbe said. "This one hurts."
Bullpen blues
Of the 12 hits the Curve bullpen allowed after Solometo was replaced following the fifth inning, five of them went for extra bases.
The Altoona bullpen gave up two homers and three doubles which allowed the Baysox to claw back and tie the game in the eighth inning.
"This one was a little different because Tyler Samaniego was a little bit unlucky with a couple little things, with a couple of not hard hit balls that made their way through," Crabbe said. "I actually thought he was doing a really good job and the velocity was better tonight, it has been trending up in the right direction so that was really nice to see. Garcia, he's thrown the ball well. He's one of my guys that I've trusted a lot. And tonight … just the arm wasn't as lively as it usually is."
Curve pitchers have now allowed a home run in 15 of their last 16 games.
"The pitchers have got to get their confidence back," Crabbe said. "When you fall behind, that's typically when you give up damage. Tonight, we were behind quite a bit when we went to the bullpen."
Getting ahead early
Altoona started the night off strong with Liover Peguero scoring in the first inning for the third game in a row.
Matt Fraizer singled home Peguero before scoring along with Abrahan Gutierrez on Jacob Gonzalez's two-run single later in the inning.
Next up
Brad Case gets the nod for Saturday's matchup in what's expected to be a day littered with bullpen guys. Case is 3-1 with a 4.41 ERA on the season and has started four games.
Aaron Shortridge will get the ball for Sunday night's game which will mark his second start of the week.
Shortridge went 5-plus innings, allowing two earned runs and notching six strikeouts in his outing on Tuesday.