Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski Curve's Maikol Escotto steals at Harrisburg second baseman Viandel Pena applies the late tag.

The Curve picked up their seventh win in eight games to start the second half of the season, earning an 8-5 win over the Harrisburg Senators on Wednesday night at Peoples Natural Gas Field.

The Curve improved to 7-1 in the second half of the Eastern League’s Southwest Division while the Senators dropped to 2-6 in the same division.

Mitch Jebb, Kervin Pichardo and Esmerlyn Valdez each recorded multi-hit games to lead a 10-hit attack at the plate. Pichardo singled home a run in the first inning, scoring Jebb, and smashed a two-run homer in the fifth inning to highlight a three-hit day at the dish. Jebb, who recorded his fourth triple of the season in the bottom of the first, also made several fantastic plays defensively to support the Curve pitching staff.

Righty Po-Yu Chen earned the win, dancing around seven baserunners in five innings. Chen struck out six and stranded a runner in scoring position in three of his five innings on the mound.

Altoona’s bullpen uncharacteristically allowed four runs across the sixth, seventh and eighth innings to allow the Senators to turn an 8-1 deficit into an 8-5 game. Beau Burrows earned his fifth save with the Curve (all since he arrived on June 8) needing just nine pitches to set down the side in the ninth inning.

Stats and stuff

Maikol Escotto turned in another strong day at the plate, reached in each of his first two plate appearances and stole two bases. Altoona took advantage of three Harrisburg errors in the fourth inning to score four times.

Up next

The Curve continue their series with Harrisburg tonight at 7 p.m. Riighty Alessandro Ercolani takes the ball for the Curve with fellow righty Riley Cornelio slated to start for the Senators.