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The Altoona Curve fell, 10-2, to the Harrisburg Senators on Sunday afternoon at PNG Field in front of 4,096 fans.
It was an afternoon of missed opportunities for Altoona, which scattered 10 hits but went 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position. That 2-for-13 included leaving four on base with two outs.
"We got something going every inning and then just failed to complete it," Curve manager Robby Hammock said. "We didn't really hit with any slug today, couldn't get a ball in the gap -- singles and some walks. I mean, we had base runners. We just couldn't get that timely hit when we needed it."
On the flip side, the Senators seemingly made the most of every opportunity presented to them. When that happens, it's tough to stop and for Altoona, it wasn't able to limit the damage being done.
"How do we stop it? That's the mindset," Hammock said. "We got to make pitches and get a swing and miss or get the ball on the ground and keep guys off the bases. We can't give up free passes and got to play defense and do whatever we can to stop it. That's the mindset always."
Altoona was still in the game despite a two-run seventh inning by Harrisburg, but Dylan Crews yanked an Eddy Yean offering over the wall in left field for a grand slam, the first of his Double-A career to put the game well out of reach at 9-2 before another run in the ninth made it 10-2.
Piggybacking pitching
LHP Anthony Solometo started Sunday before RHP Braxton Ashcraft came on in the fifth in a planned piggyback move with it being Ashcraft's second start of the week.
Solometo went three innings allowing three earned runs on six hits while walking one and striking out another.
"It's all preplanned. That was preplanned the entire week's developmental purposes," Hammock said. "The whole plan was to have Solometo start and then it was Ashcraft's second outing of the week and so just have him piggyback off that."
Ashcraft was able to follow up reliever Eddy Yean who allowed a run, in his inning of work. Ashcraft threw 2.1 innings yielding two runs on three hits.
Bubba shines
Bubba Chandler's first home start of the season was delayed twice due to rain, but he made up for lost time in a big way on Saturday.
He walked the first two batters, before retiring 12 Senators in a row six via strikeout. The Curve won game one of the doubleheader 5-3 before falling to Harrisburg 7-3 in the second game.
"He was just bullying people. It was electric, overpowering guys," Hammock said. "We've seen that from him in the past. We saw it last year. It's one of the reasons why he has such a high ceiling on him because he can do things like that. At times, it didn't look like he was being challenged. That's how good stuff looked Saturday night."
Next up
Altoona heads to Bowie to take on the Baysox for a six-game set beginning Tuesday. Po-Yu Chen gets the nod for the Curve and will face RHP Brandon Young.
Chen tossed three innings and allowed five runs in Altoona's victory over Harrisburg Wednesday night.