Trending
By Jarrod Prugar
For the Mirror
Ryan Webb's gem was too much as the Altoona Curve fell to the Akron RubberDucks, 7-3, Sunday night in front of 5,816 fans at PNG Field.
Webb spun six innings of one-run baseball with his lone blemish coming on a home run by Altoona right fielder Charles McAdoo in the sixth inning.
"He was landing his fastball really, really well, then threw a breaking ball, too," Curve manager Robby Hammock said. "You can see why they have him where they do. If he's able to do that he's going be tough against anyone."
Curve hitters struggled mightily against Webb despite it being the second time they faced him this series. Webb threw four innings on Tuesday and gave up three runs on six hits.
This time around it was Webb who had the final word as he struck out 11 Altoona hitters while only walking one.
"You would hope familiarity would play in your favor, but it looks like it's playing more in their favor," Hammock said. "I can't put a finger on it. They have a good pitching staff for sure. The confidence level that they have against our team in particular is extremely high -- extremely, extremely high."
While the familiarity didn't help against Webb, it did help the Curve offense get to Jordan Jones as they plated two runs in the ninth inning against Jones to pull within three runs.
"Hopefully we'll carry it over, that's always good," Hammock said. "They did it to us when we won the game on Thursday. They fought till the end as well and it carried over for them. Hopefully, we can get it to carry over for us going forward."
K, then
The strikeout woes continued even when Webb was lifted from the game and were on full display in the series against the RubberDucks. In four of the six games against Akron, the Curve struck out 10 or more times, including Sunday when they struck out 13 times.
Altoona accumulated 67 strikeouts in six games against the RubberDucks.
"We've got to get back on the fastball," Hammock said. "We swung through a lot of fastballs and fouled off a lot of fastballs. There's really no excuse for that. We've got to get back on the heater."
The good news for Hammock and company is that after 21 games against the RubberDucks and amassing a 4-17 record, they will no longer have to square off this season.
"Hopefully we can move on from this week and figure it out for the rest of the year," Hammock said.
Far, far away
The Altoona offense showed brief signs of life against Akron Sunday in the form of home runs.
McAdoo's sixth inning shot was his third in his brief time with the Curve and broke up the shutout against Webb.
In the eighth inning, catcher Eli Wilson tagged a Tyler Thornton pitch well over the left-field fence to cut the deficit to five runs.
Funky schedule
While Monday is usually reserved as an off-day, the Curve will be in action in Harrisburg Monday night. They will play three games in Harrisburg before returning to Altoona to host the Senators for three games beginning on July 4.
The Curve will then have Sunday and Monday off before hosting Bowie for a normal six-game series.
With the weird schedule, Hammock deployed a bullpen game Sunday to mixed results.
Chris Gau went three innings and allowed three runs on three hits to get the game started. Grant Ford entered in the fourth and tossed two scoreless innings before J.C. Flowers took over in the sixth.
Flowers gave up four, including a three-run home run in the sixth inning, before holding the RubberDucks off the scoreboard in the seventh and eighth.
Injury update
Pirates catcher Henry Davis had his rehab stint in his return from a concussion paused according to Hammock.
There is no timetable for his return to baseball activities.
Altoona did get good injury news as catcher Abrahan Gutierrez will be joining the team in Harrisburg and will be activated Tuesday.
About Saturday
Hammock watched Saturday's loss to Akron afar as he served his one-game suspension due to his ejection Friday night.
He missed a 3-0 loss to the RubberDucks as the Curve offense was blanked by Akron's pitching staff. Altoona starter Po-Yu Chen tossed seven innings and allowed three runs while reliever Tyler Samaniego threw two shutout innings to finish it off.
Next up
The Curve will send RHP Drake Fellows to the mound Monday night against Harrisburg. Fellows is 2-1 with a 3.18 ERA for Altoona this season.
Against Akron, Fellows went 5.2 innings and allowed four runs on seven hits with three walks.