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The Altoona Curve used a five-run sixth inning to catapult them to an 8-4 victory over the Bowie Baysox Sunday night in front of 6,260 people at PNG Field.
It was the hitting and heads up baserunning of Matt Gorski that flipped the tide for the Curve.
Gorski singled home two runs scoring Liover Peguero and Ji-Man Choi setting the stage for a wild rest of the inning. Tsung-Che Cheng hit a grounder to Bowie first baseman TT Bowens who subsequently stepped on first base for the out, but Gorski got caught in a rundown allowing Abrahan Gutierrez to score to put the game at 4-3 in favor of the Baysox.
"I honestly thought it was foul to begin with so I just kind of stopped," Gorski said. "Then once he tagged first I knew I had to say in the run down until Gutierrez scored from first which they made it really easy on me."
Up next was Andres Alvarez who hit the ball right at Bowie pitcher Jean Pinto who with two outs turned to throw the ball to second base for a forceout, but ultimately airmailed the ball into center field only adding to the bizarreness of the inning.
"I was trying to steal. I got an interesting secondary where I kind of stopped for a second and he got the ball, looked at me and just, for some reason, decided to go to second base with two outs and just chucked it in centerfield," Gorski said.
That set the stage for a first and third situation with Matt Fraizer up to bat. Fraizer fell down 0-2 only to work the count to 3-2 thanks in large part to Gorski's lead at third base.
"Gorski was trying to do a big steel. He shut it down and the pitcher just got caught in between and then of course he did a great job not trying to carry on and sometimes that alone creates a little bit of chaos," Curve manager Callix Crabbe said.
That slight bit of chaos led to Fraizer lining a double into right field to score both Gorski and Alvarez which put the Curve ahead for good at 5-4 before they tacked on runs late.
"The boys just did a good job of capitalizing on some of the mistakes they made that we literally had a hard time to capitalize on," Crabbe said. "It was just fun to see us get a break. That's what we needed. We needed something weird and funky to happen."
Defense does it
Lolo Sanchez made a couple of spectacular plays in right field Sunday night, but none better than his double play in the seventh inning.
After the five run sixth, Bowie managed to have both John Rhodes and Billy Cook reach to start the inning. Both would advance to third and second respectively on TT Bowen's ground out.
Zach Watson hit a shallow fly ball to right field where Sanchez took over. Sanchez caught the ball with momentum toward home plate then fired a missile to catcher Abrahan Gutierrez who had more than enough time to tag Rhodes and end the inning and threat for the Baysox.
"Sometimes when a ball is that shallow, you can get somewhat complacent as an outfielder because you think the person is not going tag up," Crabbe said. "Lolo did a great job of getting him. He had a really good game in right field which isn't his usual position."
Bullpen battles
The Curve bullpen has struggled mightily recently, but Sunday against Bowie, the ship was seemingly righted.
It was Cameron Junker who set the tone after Curve starter Aaron Shortridge gave up four runs over five innings. Junker tossed two scoreless innings allowing only a walk and a base hit. Lefty Braeden Ogle took over in the eighth throwing 1.1 innings allowing no runs and striking out three.
Ogle set the stage for Oliver Garcia to shut down the Baysox for the remaining two outs to help put Altoona back in the win column.
Mason's mash
For only the third time in his career, Mason Martin hit lead off. He managed a walk and struck out twice, but it was his home run in the eighth inning that helped put the Baysox away for good.
The 407-foot bomb scored Sanchez who singled and plated Andres Alvarez. It was Martin's 11th home run of the season and his first since June 3rd.
"It felt good," Martin said. "I've spent a lot of trial and error recently just making some adjustments and getting back to what I do well, so it felt really good to get back to what I'm doing what I do well"
Next up
Altoona begins the second half of the season against Harrisburg on Tuesday. The series will mark the first time the two teams have faced off against each other this season.