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By Jarrod Prugar
For the Mirror
After a season hampered by injury, Domingo Leyba's two-run home run set the tone for a 4-0 Altoona Curve victory over the Reading Fightin' Phils Tuesday night in front of 6,158 people at PNG Field.
Leyba blasted his third home run of the season in the bottom of the fifth inning to break a scoreless tie. Tuesday's game was only Leyba's third since leaving due to injury on May 31st and fourth since his initial injury May 7th.
Prior to his injury, he was hitting .329 with two home runs. He picked up right where he left off going 3-for-4 on the night to help pace the Curve's offense.
"I'm excited to see that he's playing well again and he's one of the guys you hope he continues to do well and get an opportunity to move on," Altoona manager Callix Crabbe said.
The return of Leyba to the Altoona offense is big as the Curve have sent a multitude of heavy hitters to Triple-A Indianapolis and have been in need of offensive production as a result.
"The way he goes about his work is really good," Crabbe said. "He plays the game with a little flair, a little swag, which is what you need. You need some guys on a team like that, but he's very consistent with his mentality and his attitude."
Altoona plated two more insurance runs in the bottom of the seventh with Matt Gorksi roping a double down the left field line to score Jackson Glenn who led off the inning with a single. Gorski came home to score on a wild pitch by Reading's Noah Song to push the Curve lead to four and they'd never look back.
SUBHED: Bullpen game
Having played only 11 innings since their last game before the All-Star Break, the Curve needed to get several pitchers in action and went with a bullpen game Tuesday night.
It paid off in a big way. Altoona deployed seven of their 16 pitchers to combine for a shutout performance. They scattered seven hits over nine innings while striking out 12 in the process.
First and foremost, we had a lot of guys and a lot of days of rest," Crabbe said. "Looking at my days, I had multiple guys over 11 days, and multiple guys at 10 days and I think the goal was ultimately to make sure we don't sacrifice health."
With Tuesday being the start of a six-game series, Crabbe had to beware of using too many guys and jeopardizing the remainder of the series.
"We couldn't go crazy because we have a six game series," Crabbe said. "We kind of mapped it out for today and the rest of the week."
SUBHED: New guy in town
Over the weekend, Altoona pitching coach Cale Johnson took a position with Dallas Baptist University. Johnson celebrated his last game with the Curve Tuesday night making way for a new pitching coach.
The coach for this series will be former Major Leaguer Scott Elarton. Elarton played 10 seasons in the Majors with five different teams notching a career-high in wins in 2000 with 17 wins for the Houston Astros.
Elarton began his coaching career with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization in 2014 as the pitching coach for Bradenton before being named Special Assistant to the General Manager the following season.
"We have Scott Elarton who is gonna be in town for this week," Crabbe said. "There's some some stuff in the background going on and a familiar face will be with us at some point."
SUBHED: Next up
RHP Aaron Shortridge will be on the mound for Altoona Wednesday afternoon. On the season, Shortridge is 5-5 with a 4.96 ERA.
In his last home outing, Shortridge went seven innings striking out five and walking one to get the win against Erie.