Courtesy photo Legendary Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Darius Kasparaitis signs a jersey for Doug Wise of Altoona during a meet-and-greet session before the Altoona Curve game Thursday at Peoples Natural Gas Field.

The Altoona Curve couldn’t come back from allowing five first-inning runs in a 10-5 loss to the Hartford Yard Goats at PNG Field Thursday night in front of 3,736 fans.

It was the opposite type of game from Wednesday night’s pitcher’s duel and it was mucked up from the beginning as Curve starting pitcher Dominic Perachi only threw one inning.

“It’s always tough when you lose a starter in the first and that was just more of a protection thing, just for him, throwing 32 pitches in the first and then coming off an injury,” Altoona manager Andy Fox said. “Our number one job is trying to keep these guys healthy and on the field.”

Despite allowing five runs in the first and trailing 8-2 after six, the Curve did claw back to make it a closer ball game.

“We did a good job for a bit, holding them down and kind of finding our way back in there in the seventh,” Fox said. “We just basically ran out of pitching.”

Altoona got the game back within three after a 3-run seventh inning, but those pitching woes Fox mentioned came out in full force when Justin Meis was hit with a line drive in the eighth inning.

It caused Meis to leave the game and forced Fox to turn to a position player Tres Gonzalez to pitch in a close game to save the bullpen an inning of work.

“My thought was because Jaden Woods could only have one up, basically pitch one inning, if he got the final out of the inning, he was done for the day, and then we still would have a position player in the ninth inning,” Fox said. “I figured, I’d take my chances with Tres getting one out, and then Woods being able to come to the ninth because it was still a three-run game at that point and obviously you’re still trying to win the game.”

Gonzalez got out of the eighth, but the Yard Goats scored two runs against Woods in the ninth forcing Fox to once again turn to a position player to finish the inning.

“The thought behind pulling Jaden was, he gave up two runs. He’d thrown 15 pitches he pitched yesterday so again, we’re protecting him,” Fox said. “We’re down by five again. We’ve still got to protect these guys. And then fortunately Jarvis did a good job getting out of it.”

The Curve put two on in the ninth, but were unable to come through and continue the comeback.

Got tossed

Second baseman Termarr Johnson was ejected in the fifth inning after arguing balls and strikes with the home plate umpire.

It marked the second time this season he has been ejected, the first coming April 29th against Chesapeake.

“He was arguing balls and strikes and that’s a no-no,” Fox said. “I mean, I understand it. You never want to see your players get kicked out of the game, but I also understand why he was kicked out.”

Meis removed

In the eighth inning, Meis was struck by a line drive that ricocheted off his arm and into the glove of Mike Jarvis.

“He just got hit in the tricep, and we just wanted to err on the side of caution,” Fox said.

For the record

Altoona is 21-15 overall while Hartford is 19-16.

Up next

Altoona sends Wilber Dotel to the mound against the Yard Goats tonight.