Two extra base hits and three RBIs from Altoona Curve shortstop Jack Brannigan weren’t enough in an 8-6 loss to the Portland Sea Dogs in front of 2,944 at PNG Field Wednesday night.

The defeat dropped the Curve’s record to 0-11 this season.

Brannigan, in only his second game back from an injury sustained in spring training, roped a triple for the team’s first hit of the game in the third inning, and a three-run double in the sixth inning.

“It definitely felt great,” Brannigan said. “Anytime you show up to a new team, you want to help them out as quickly as you can to show your worth, kind of show how good of a player you are so it felt really good to kind of deliver with that two out hit and kind of try to spark the comeback.”

Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski Curve's Jack Brannigan reacts after striking out looking in the fifth inning.

Portland got on the board early with a leadoff home run by Franklin Arias to give the Sea Dogs a 1-0 lead, before they plated five runs in the top of the third inning off Curve starter Connor Wietgrefe.

The top of the sixth brought in another run for Portland to make it 7-4 until Brannigan’s double provided a jolt to a dormant offense.

“It’s great just to have him healthy,” Curve manager Andy Fox said. “He was starting to really turn it around before he got hurt last year, and a couple unfortunate things, but it’s really good to see him healthy and performing.”

Neither team scored in the seventh, but in the eighth, the Sea Dogs brought in a run to make it an 8-4 game.

Javier Rivas hit a monster home run in the home half of the eighth and cut into the Portland lead, making it an 8-5 game. Just a few hitters later, Mitch Jebb scored on a strikeout by Omar Alfonzo that squirted away from catcher Ronald Rosario.

Despite the losses mounting early in the season, Fox sees good things ahead.

“Despite our record these guys have been playing hard and preparing and doing things, and it was good to see and I’m not surprised,” Fox said. “These guys care and they work, and they’re trying to figure it out.”

Crooked innnings

In many of the Curve’s 11 losses, they’ve struggled to limit the damage the opponent’s doing offensively.

That was no different Wednesday night in a five-run third inning for the Sea Dogs. It’s been plaguing the team all season, but it’s a simple fix if you ask Fox.

“We need to just keep attacking and keep executing,” Fox said. “We got ahead. He just couldn’t put hitters away today. And at this level, you got to be able to put hitters away.”

More K’s

The Curve picked up where they left off after Monday’s game that featured six strikeouts looking and 13 total strikeouts. Curve hitters struckout 15 times including five looking Wednesday night.

“We’re getting to a point where we’re understanding what we need to do offensively, but also we got to be a little more selectively aggressive at times, especially in those RBI type situations,” Fox said. “Leaving 12 guys on base and going four-for-13 with runners in scoring position, but we definitely had some opportunities to put the ball in play and to add on to our runs.”

Despite the strikeouts, the Curve did put the ball in play throughout the contest as they notched 12 hits against Portland pitchers.

Up next

The Curve will send Peyton Stumbo to the mound tonight. Stumbo gave up three earned runs, six total runs off nine hits last week against Richmond in a losing effort.