Through more than six innings of Thursday’s game with the Bowie Baysox, the Altoona Curve were searching for anything positive with no hits.

Ivan Brethowr got the first hit on a single up the middle, and the Curve ended up with four hits for the game, but there wasn’t a lot to cheer for with the 3,293 fans in attendance in the Curve’s 4-0 loss to the Baysox at Peoples Natural Gas Field.

Luis De Leon went the first five innings of hitless ball. Only three Curve batters reached base against De Leon — two walks and a hit batsman.

“He kept us off-balance,” Curve manager Andy Fox said. “He has a really good arm. He’s running it up there 95-96 (miles per hour) and he’s able to get his secondary stuff over the plate. It’s a tough matchup.”

Relief pitcher Alex Pham gave up two hits in his first two inning of work. Keagan Gillies and Micah Ashman finished the final two frames.

Bowie’s Aron Estrada homered to lead off the game to put Altoona behind the 8-ball early against Curve starter Matt Ager.

Ager also ran into some trouble in the second inning after an RBI single from Carter Young.

Despite the rough start, Ager still went six innings and allowed three earned runs on eight hits without walking anyone.

“(Ager) was up in the zone a lot early,” Fox said. He was able to make some adjustments, and to be able to get through six, that’s a good job. He got a quality start out of it, but he made adjustments and got the ball down.”

Alessando Ercolani threw two shutout innings in relief, while Landon Tomkins allowed a run in the ninth on one hit and a walk.

Brethowr, Omar Alfonzo, Javier Rivas, and Titus Dumitru all had one base hit for Altoona.

Rain delay

A storm came through Altoona around 5 p.m., an hour before the expected first pitch at 6 p.m. The game got under way at 7:23 p.m. for a 1 hour, 23 minute rain delay.

Another violation

A day after the Curve took advantage of four pitch clock violations from Bowie starter Sebastian Gongora, Altoona’s Matt King was awarded second base after a disengagement violation from Bowie starter Luis De Leon.

In Double-A baseball, pitchers are allowed just one disengagement. If a second disengagement occurs and a baserunner isn’t retired, it is a balk and the runner is awarded the next base.

“It’s a rule you have to adjust to whether you like it or not,” Fox said. “We’ve always kind of preached control in the running game. It makes it more challenging using your disengagements. It’s a tricky rule.”

Up next

The Curve will send left-hander Connor Oliver to the mound for his Double-A debut tonight at 6 p.m. He will oppose Baysox RHP Juaron Watts-Brown.

Oliver, a 17th round pick of the Kansas City Royals in 2023, was 4-0 with a 2.27 earned run average for High-A Greensboro this season.