Extra Innings Continue to Plague Curve on Tuesday
Win: Zach Nuding (1-0)
Loss: Brett McKinney (0-1)
Save: --
TOG: 4:32
Attendance: 4,285
AKRON, Ohio - For the second time in a week the Altoona Curve got locked in a stalemate that lasted deep into the night only to lose. This time, the Curve fell, 5-4, in 14 innings after dropping the 18-inning game last Thursday in Reading, 8-7. Strangely enough, all 18 hits surrendered by the Curve on Tuesday night were singles. Of the seven extra-inning games the Curve have played in 2015, five of them are against Akron.
The Curve overcame a pair of one-run deficits early to take a, 4-2, lead. With the game tied at two in the fourth, Josh Bell stroked a sac fly to left to put the Curve in front. Two innings later, he extended the lead with an RBI single that gave them the two-run lead.
That was the last time the Curve scored, however, on Tuesday night as Akron scored the final three runs of the contest. They grabbed a run off Jason Creasy in the sixth and chased him before he could record an out. Josh Smith came in with two on and no one out and did a marvelous job of getting out of the inning with no further damage to keep Creasy in line for a win.
Jhondaniel Medina pitched the seventh and gave up a run on a Bryson Myles single that tied the game at four.
From there, neither team would do much offensively until the 14th. In fact, the Curve were held without a hit from the seventh through 13th innings on Tuesday. Adam Frazier broke that streak in the 14th when he led off with a triple. Seemingly in a prime position to take a lead with no one out, the Curve failed to get Frazier in from third and progressed on to the bottom of the 14th still tied at four.
Brett McKinney (0-1), who struck out the side after working around a single in the 13th, fanned Myles to start the 14th before Todd Hankins singled. Tony Wolters flew out to center for the second out before Hankins stole second during Rodriguez's at bat. With two strikes, Rodriguez smacked a single to right-center that scored Hankins to end the game.
In his return to the Curve, Mel Rojas, Jr. had two hits and was 2-for-7. As a team, the Curve collected 10 hits but left 14 runners on the bases.
Altoona (37-25) looks to even the series with Akron (32-30) at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday night from Canal Park. LHP Zack Dodson (3-2, 2.57) takes the ball in game two for the Curve to oppose RHP Will Roberts (5-2, 3.70) of Akron.
Airtime on ESPN Radio 1430, WVAM and the Curve Radio Network is scheduled for 6:50 p.m.
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