Wilber Dotel tossed six dominant innings in a 2-1 Altoona Curve victory over the Richmond Flying Squirrels Wednesday night in front of 3,520 fans at PNG Field.

Dotel dotted the strike zone throughout his outing, sitting down eight Flying Squirrels.

“He pounded the fastball in the zone for the most part,” acting Curve manager Gary Green said. “He threw some good split fingers at times, but he really got after it with his fastball tonight, he was around the plate for the most part with only one walk.”

A right-hander, Dotel was able to keep a lineup heavy with lefties off-balance throughout all six innings.

His performance was welcome for the Curve who have relied heavily on their bullpen due to injuries.

“We didn’t have to use a bunch of guys in the bullpen tonight, because he gave us length,” Green said. “Dotel gave us length tonight, which was really big so we’re able to save some guys for tomorrow, which we might need.”

Dotel has had a solid season so far in Altoona as one of the most consistent arms on the roster. He’s started 13 games and has a 1-3 record with a 3.54 ERA.

While Dotel did his part in the victory, the bullpen held up their end of the bargain, allowing only one run, which wasn’t earned, in two innings of work.

Emmanual Chapman got the ball after Dotel and tossed two innings and allowed one run on two hits.

“Chapman, he came in and he didn’t walk anybody,” Green said. “He threw the ball over the plate better. He pounded the fastball, threw it over the plate. He’s had some control issues throughout the course of the year but tonight he’s gotten better with it and it showed up again tonight, so you know we can get guys it’s all ball over plate more it gives us a chance.”

Only Mother Nature got in the way of the Curve pitching staff as the sky opened up with rain and put the game in a rain delay that lasted an hour and 34 minutes.

When the game resumed it was Wilkin Ramos who toed the rubber and he promptly slammed the door on the Flying Squirrels to seal the victory and earn the save.

Hit parade

The Altoona offense racked up 10 hits against Richmond with nine of them being ruled singles.

Seven Curve hitters recorded a hit including Maikol Escotto, Termarr Johnson and Aaron McKeithan who had two hits apiece.

“I think the bats were okay. We actually tried to bunt a little bit tonight, which actually was good,” Green said. “We came out really good. Came out ready to go and then we didn’t score after that, but early they were really ready to play.”

Welcome home

Johnstown, Pa native Braxton Roxby tossed the eighth inning for Richmond. He immediately dismissed Johnson on strikes before inducing flyouts to end the top half of the inning.

Roxby graduated from Pitt-Johnstown before being signed to a free agent contract by the Cincinnati Reds in 2022.

Up next

Due to Tuesday’s rainout, the Curve will be playing a doubleheader on Thursday with the first game set to begin at 5 pm. Altoona will be sending Po-Yu Chen to the mound in game one and Jarod Bayless for game two.

Next stop

Tonight: vs. Richmond, Game 1: 5:00 pm, Game 2: TBD

Starting pitchers: Game 1: Altoona RHP Po-Yu Chen (0-5, 4.42 ERA) vs. Richmond LHP Jack Choate (1-5, 4.05 ERA). Game 2: Altoona RHP Jarod Bayless (0-4, 5.04 ERA) vs. Richmond RHP Nick Sinacola (0-2, 4.39 ERA)

Records: Altoona 29-35, Richmond 18-45