Four errors costly for Curve in loss at home to Squirrels
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By Jarrod Prugar
For the Mirror
The Altoona Curve's 6-2 loss to the Richmond Flying Squirrels Tuesday night in front of 3,801 fans at PNG Field was a microcosm of the 2024 season as a whole.
The team was unable to play complementary baseball and struggled at times, even with the minutae of the fundamentals of the game. Those struggles resulted in four errors and allowing six runs, four of which were unearned.
"It was just not being prepared, not being ready, not being awake, just not being present," Curve manager Robby Hammock said.
It didn't take long for the game to turn sour as the first hitter of the game, Richmond's Carter Howell, roped a line drive to center field that Sammy Siani misplayed and resulted in Howell ending up at third base.
"It's one of those games I'm just chalking up as a bad game," Hammock said.
This was not the same output Altoona had in Hartford over the past week which featured a series split and multiple close games.
"We had a tough series in Hartford, a lot of energy, close games every night against really good team," Hammock said. "Then we come back here, and everybody just seemed down, seemed dead and not alert and ready to play."
Certainly, growing pains happen throughout the course of a Double A season with players moving up, down and everything in between. For the Curve, despite some of the talent on the roster, they've not been able to figure out how to handle the growing pains.
"It just part of maturing as a player, part of understanding mentally where you're at and being able to use that as a trigger and correct it before stuff hits the fan," And we just are not there. We've been like that a lot this year, but for younger guys, that's some part of the learning process."
With five games left, Altoona will look to end the season on a much higher note than the performance Tuesday night would provide.
How it happened
Altoona started the game off with an error by Sammy Siani in centerfield. That error resulted in Carter Howell scoring to give Richmond an early 1-0 lead.
The Flying Squirrels would score again in the second inning on a bases-loaded single by Victor Bericoto.
Altoona would plate two runs in the bottom half of the inning by way of Jase Bowen's single that scored Kervin Pichardo. Bowen would score to tie the game on a steal by Tsung-Che Cheng that allowed Bowen to scoot home from third.
Richmond's Bryce Eldridge roped a two-run triple in the top of the fourth to give the Flying Squirrels a lead they wouldn't relinquish. They'd score two again in the fifth, one when Andy Thomas scored on a throwing error by Nick Cimillo and another on a sac-fly by Carter Howell that scored Matt Higgins to round out the scoring and give Richmond a 6-2 lead.
Welcome back
Pirates catcher Endy Rodriguez will be suiting up for the Curve this week as he returns from offseason Tommy John surgery.
Rodriguez was 0-for-3 with a strikeout and a passed ball during his five innings of action with the Curve. He will be alternating between catcher and designated hitter this week with Altoona.
Rodriguez was unavailable for comment following the game due to travel circumstances.
Flowers bloom
J.C. Flowers has strung together an impressive past few weeks of action and Tuesday night's performance was no different.
Flowers turned in his second shutout appearance in a row as he went three innings, allowing no hits. He struck out two and walked two.
He's been really good lately, going multiple innings to being able to put up zeros for us," Hammock said. "He's been clutch for us here lately. Hopefully, he's turning a corner, getting back to his old form."
Next up
Altoona will pitch LHP Dominic Perachi tonight against the Flying Squirrels. Perachi is 1-2 with a 6.50 ERA on the season.