Passantino Deals Six Scoreless in Sunday Victory
CURVE, PA – Altoona starter Jeff Passantino secured his first victory of the season with six scoreless innings to lead the Curve to a 3-0 win over the Akron RubberDucks on Sunday evening at Peoples Natural Gas Field. Passantino worked around two hits in the first inning and proceeded to
CURVE, PA – Altoona starter Jeff Passantino secured his first victory of the season with six scoreless innings to lead the Curve to a 3-0 win over the Akron RubberDucks on Sunday evening at Peoples Natural Gas Field.
Passantino worked around two hits in the first inning and proceeded to retire eight straight batters into the fourth inning until Alex Call recorded his second hit of the game. The 25-year-old right-hander used his typical assortment of mid-to-high 80’s cut fastballs and various off-speed pitches to keep the ‘Ducks off-balance on Sunday night. In the sixth, Passantino worked around a two-out triple by Richie Palacios and a walk to Call to induce an inning-ending groundout to the shortstop. In all, Passantino allowed four hits, one walk and struck out four on 86 pitches, 63 strikes.
The Curve jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning thanks, in part, to a throwing error by Akron starter Alex Royalty. Oneil Cruz led off the inning with a single and advanced two bases on an errant pick-off throw attempt and scored on Rodolfo Castro’s sacrifice fly to left field.
Oddy Nunez and Shea Murray each delivered scoreless innings of relief following Passantino. Murray worked out of an eighth inning jam by inducing an inning-ending double play ball off the bat of Alex Call.
The game stayed 1-0 until the eighth inning when Arden Pabst doubled in Jonah Davis and later scored on Canaan Smith-Njigba’s single with two outs.
With a 3-0 advantage, Hunter Stratton allowed a leadoff single in the ninth inning, struck out Bo Naylor and then induced a game-ending 5-4-3 double play.
Cruz extended his on-base streak to 16 straight games with a 1-for-4 night at the plate. During the streak, he’s batting .383 with a .439 on-base percentage, with three doubles, one triple, six home runs and 17 runs batted in.
The Curve hit the road beginning on Tuesday for a six-game set with the Erie SeaWolves at UPMC Park. RHP Roansy Contreras (3-1, 2.18) will start for Altoona with the SeaWolves sending RHP AJ Ladwig (1-2, 4.74) to the mound.
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.
.@Shadmu4 gets a big ground ball as Rodolfo Castro turns two to end the top of the eighth inning! We take a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the eighth.
— Altoona Curve (@AltoonaCurve) June 14, 2021
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