Gonzalez's Blast Sinks Curve on Friday Night

Oneil Cruz and Canaan Smith-Njigba hit back-to-back home runs in the fifth inning

By Jon Mozes

June 11, 2021

CURVE, PA – Despite a five-run fifth inning, the Curve dropped Friday night’s game with the Akron RubberDucks, 7-5, at Peoples Natural Gas Field. Akron built a 3-0 lead before the Curve finally broke through against the ‘Ducks starter Shane McCarthy in the bottom half of the inning. With one

CURVE, PA – Despite a five-run fifth inning, the Curve dropped Friday night’s game with the Akron RubberDucks, 7-5, at Peoples Natural Gas Field.

Akron built a 3-0 lead before the Curve finally broke through against the ‘Ducks starter Shane McCarthy in the bottom half of the inning. With one out, Daniel Amaral stood at first and Arden Pabst singled to put men at first and second. Josh Bissonette followed with a base hit through the right side of the infield to get the Curve on the board to set up Oneil Cruz. Cruz smashed a 1-1 offering down the right field line for a three-run homer to take a 4-3 lead for the Curve. Cruz’s seventh home run of the campaign puts him among the top four in the Double-A Northeast League.

Canaan Smith-Njigba followed Cruz’s homer with an opposite field solo shot to extend the lead to 5-3. It was Smith-Njigba’s first home run since May 14 when he hit a two-run blast of Binghamton’s Dylan Hall and marked the second time this season that Altoona hit back-to-back home runs.

Oscar Gonzalez added an RBI single in the sixth inning to make 5-4 off Curve starter Noe Toribio. Toribio allowed four runs on six hits, no walks, and struck out five in 5.2 innings pitched. The 21-year-old right-hander needed just 76 pitches to work through his outing which began with him retiring 11 straight batters to begin the ballgame.

Gonzalez hit a three-run homer to left-center in the eighth inning off reliever Cam Vieaux to cap off a five-RBI night at the plate.

Smith-Njigba and Rodolfo Castro each had two-hit days at the plate. Castro continued a torrid stretch at the plate, reaching in his 11th straight game; during which he is batting .452 with a .469 on-base percentage, and recording his sixth straight game with a hit.

The Curve continue their six-game series at Peoples Natural Gas Field on Saturday evening beginning at 4:00 p.m. to make up Thursday’s rain out. LHP Trey McGough (0-1, 7.63) will start game one of the doubleheader with RHP Osvaldo Bido slated for game two. The doubleheader will consist of two seven-inning games with a 30-minute break between games. The ‘Ducks will send LHP Juan Hillman (3-1, 3.41) in the opener of the doubleheader and LHP Tanner Tully (1-2, 8.03) in the finale.

For tickets or more information about Curve Baseball, visit AltoonaCurve.com, call 877.99.CURVE or stop by the PNG Field box office. Additionally, the Stockyard Team Store is open Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., during every home game and online 24/7/365.