Bullpen key to Altoona Curve victory

The Altoona Curve held off a late rally by the Portland Sea Dogs in a 4-2 win on a dreary Tuesday night in front of 3,166 fans at PNG Field.

Both teams dodged raindrops for the entire night, but it was the Curve bullpen that got the upperhand going the distance in the series-opening win.

“It’s really big, especially being a little short handed and trying to stretch out the week,” Altoona manager Andy Fox said. “You’re always trying to win today, but also you have to plan for the week. Being able to score some runs early was helpful.”

Fineas Del Bonta-Smith tossed two innings of shutout baseball before turning it over to the freshly recalled Blake Townsend.

Townsend threw three innings, allowing one hit, striking out two and not yielding a run.

“Blake giving us some length and being able to stretch the game out a little bit more was big,” Fox said.

The Altoona offense took advantage of miscues by the Sea Dogs to take the lead and never look back in the second inning. The Curve followed it up with back-to-back doubles in the third inning to take a 3-0 lead.

“That’s kind of been our teaching moment the whole year, being able to hit in situations,” Fox said. “Today, we did a good job with our situational hitting and we got rewarded for it.”

With a 3-0 lead, Sean Sullivan stymied the Portland offense in his two innings of work in which he didn’t allow a baserunner and struck out two.

“Sully’s done a great job since he’s been here, and was able to be real efficient with his pitches,” Fox said. “Every pitch matters, because, you know, the less pitches they throw, the quicker they can come back.”

Nick Cimillo’s seventh inning home run gave the Curve a 4-0 cushion before a two-run home run by Blaze Jordan helped climb the Sea Dogs within two runs.

Cam Sanders would shut the Sea Dogs down in the ninth to seal the victory.

Moving on up

Altoona pitcher Po-Yu Chen was promoted to Triple A Indianapolis thanks to the promotion of Braxton Ashcraft who made his MLB debut with the Pirates Monday night.

Chen hurled five innings and allowed three hits while shutting down Toledo to earn the win.

Mike Jarvis was also sent with Chen to join the Indians while Blake Townsend was recalled from High A Greensboro to take Chen’s roster spot. 1-

Getting quirky

The Curve got their first run thanks to a two-base error by Portland catcher Mark Kolozsvary.

Kolozsvary fielded a ground ball just beside the pitcher’s mound that exited Jack Brannigan’s bat at 27 mph.

It had enough spin on it that it crossed from foul territory into fair territory where Kolozsvary fielded it and promptly threw the ball into the tarp in right field to allow Brannigan to get to third on the play.

Things got weird in the top of the third when Townsend struck out Caden Rose on two pitches. The first strike was an automatic strike due to time on the pitch clock running out prior to him reaching the batter’s box.

“Every day it’s kind of Groundhog Day,” Fox said. “The one thing that’s not Groundhog Day is what happens during the game. You never know what’s going to happen so you just roll with it and keep going.”

Up next

Altoona sends RHP Alessandro Ercolani to the mound on Wednesday. Ercolani is 1-3 with a 5.53 ERA on the season.