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By Jarrod Prugar
For the Mirror
The Altoona Curve came back from a 3-0 first-inning deficit to outlast the Portland Sea Dogs, thanks to a 6-5 win in front of 3,863 fans at PNG Field Thursday night.
It was a back-and-forth night after the Curve overtook the Sea Dogs with a four-run fifth inning. One of the key hitters was Altoona right fielder Sammy Siani who had an RBI single in the fifth and finished the game going 2-for-4 with two RBI.
"We had a lot of guys put together a lot of really good at bats," Siani said. "Guys are seeing the ball and taking their walks when we need to. And we'll just pile together some good at-bats, get some clutch hits in there and we'll put some runs across the board and, you know, use momentum from each other at-bats to really get going."
The inning got started with a walk to Seth Beer, and was followed up by back-to-back-to-back singles from Dustin Peterson, Siani and Wyatt Hendrie to tie the game at three. Designated hitter Connor Scott roped a two-run double on the next at-bat to put the Curve ahead 5-3.
Portland answered in the sixth with two runs off Altoona reliever Valentin Linarez, but the Curve offense punched back in the bottom half with a two-out RBI single from Peterson to give Altoona a 6-5 advantage.
"You want to have answer-back innings and we were able to do that," Altoona manager Robby Hammock said. "Peterson stepped up with that big two-out hit there with two strikes and pushed the go ahead run across and we were able to hang on."
All six runs for the Curve came with two outs which has been a trend for the offense of late.
"We've done some damage with two outs over the course of the last couple of weeks when we have been scoring runs," Hammock said. "Before, we weren't getting anything done with two outs and now we're starting to get some two out hits and some timely hits and it's showing up on the scoreboard."
It's not just been the offense doing its part, but the pitching staff has come into form as well as the Curve start to rack up wins to finish out the month of May.
"Our pitching staff has kind of turned the corner a little bit as far as the bullpen goes," Hammock said. "Guys are stepping up and making pitches and giving us quality innings and it's showing up in the win column."
Thursday's win gives Altoona seven wins in their last 10 games.
The closer
It was Jack Carey who got the call in the 'pen following Valentin Linarez who allowed two earned runs in the top of the sixth inning.
Carey took the ball and ran with it as he shut down a Portland offense that scattered seven hits over nine innings. The right-handed Carey tossed three shutout innings.
"He's been in full attack mode, fearless," Hammock said. "(It's like) I'm going to trust my stuff and if it doesn't get it done today, it doesn't get it done, but I'm going to trust my stuff the entire time and go at guys and attack."
A walk in the top of the seventh was the lone blemish for Carey against the Sea Dogs as he didn't allow a hit and had one strikeout.
Settling in
Harrington gave up three runs in the first inning off a double, single and a home run. After that, the Curve righty settled in, allowing two hits over his next four innings of action.
"I think it was just one bad pitch really, and they didn't miss it," Hammock said. "I've seen Harrington for a couple years now and there's never really any worry on our part because we know he's able to make in-game adjustments on the fly. And we, you know, we had a good feeling about him going forward to get us some quality innings."
In only his fifth start with Altoona since coming off the Injured List, Harrington struck out five and no walks.
Next up
Braxton Ashcraft will toe the rubber for the Curve tonight. He is 1-2 with a 3.76 ERA on the season.
In his last outing, Ashcraft struck out eight while allowing five hits and one run over 5-plus innings.