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The Altoona Curve fell behind early Sunday night en route to a 9-2 loss to the Akron RubberDucks in front of 5,133 fans at PNG Field Sunday night.
The RubberDucks put up five runs in the second inning off Curve starter Wilber Dotel and never looked back in their lone win of the series.
"It was a tough start for Dotel," Altoona manager Andy Fox said. "All things considered, the bullpen did a really good job just keeping it under control."
Curve relievers held Akron to only four runs over 7 1/3 innings.
Altoona's Brenden Dixon hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the second to cut the lead to three at 5-2, but that was the only offense on the night.
"We've been a much better team in the second half of being down and being able to kind of put ourselves back in the game and things like that," Fox said. "Ideally you don't want to be down five to nothing. We gave up five and then we scored two, so we had a three run lead. That's doable with seven trips left to the plate."
The Curve failed to get a runner past second base after the third inning, and had 11 hitters in a row retired after Dixon's fourth- inning single until Duce Gourson doubled in the eighth inning.
"We ended up with Dixon's homer and from there you're just trying to piece it together and limit damage, and we weren't really able to tonight,"
A lack of offense was uncharacteristic for an Altoona team that jumped to the top of the Eastern League Southwest Division standings to start the second half of the season, and has stayed there despite losing four of six against Binghamton last week.
Six of the seven hits Curve hitters accrued Sunday came in the first four innings with the final hit being Gourson's double in the eighth.
No you don't
In the top of the seventh inning, Fox elected to go to reliever Valentin Linarez to replace Jaden Woods on the mound.
Linarez tossed his warmup pitches, but the umpire crew brought Fox out to discuss an issue. That issue? Linarez was not on the lineup card and as a result, could not be put in the game. It forced Emmanual Chapman into the game abruptly.
"That's my fault," Fox said. "That being said, I mean, Chapman did a great job in a tough situation to get out of the big bases-loaded jam."
Lefty of love
Fans of left-handed baseball players had a field day with Sunday's game. Akron's starting lineup featured seven left-handed hitters while Altoona had four of their own lefties.
To combat the plethora of Akron lefties, the Curve threw three of their own southpaws in Cy Nielsen, Tyler Samaniego and Woods.
"We're fortunate because we have three lefties in our pen," Fox said. "I think that is helpful against a team like that. They did a really good job. If these guys are going to pitch in the big leagues, they're going to have to be able to get lefties out."
Akron lefty relievers Shawn Rapp and Adam Tulloch threw the eighth and ninth innings, respectively, which brought the total number of lefties used to 16 for the game.
Walk it off
For the second time against Akron in the series, the Curve walked it off Saturday night. Gourson's walk-off double gave Altoona the series win with the victory.
Gourson had a double, triple, RBI and run against the RubberDucks while Nick Cimillo added a triple, home run and four RBI.
Up next
Altoona hosts Chesapeake for the final time this season with a six-game series which starts Tuesday. Curve righty Po-Yu Chen is slated to start.