CURVE, Pa. – Five runs in the first two innings stood up for the Altoona Curve as they fended off a three-game sweep to the Bowie Baysox with a 5-3 victory on Wednesday at Peoples Natural Gas Field.
(Photo courtesy of Altoona Curve)
Will Craig provided three RBIs to aid Luis Escobar (Win, 1-0) in his first Double-A outing with the Curve (49-43). After the Baysox (43-52) scored once in the first, Craig drilled his 14th homer, a two-run blast, with two outs in the bottom of the opening frame. He recorded his league-best 70th RBI of the year on a single during Altoona’s three-run second. Escobar limited Bowie to four hits, two of them solo homers, over six innings with three runs allowed.
The first of three hits for Cole Tucker was an RBI triple to grow the Curve lead to 3-1 in the second to set up an RBI single from Ke’Bryan Hayes, which was Hayes’ second hit of the game. Stephen Alemais joined his infield mates with multiple hits by going 2-for-3.
The Baysox opened the game with the loaded the bases against Escobar and mustered one run. Jaycob Brugman doubled, Corban Joseph walked and Ryan Mountcastle singled to fill the sacks, but Anthony Santander bounced into a double play that scored the first run of the game. Bowie struggled to find scoring threats against Escobar and tacked on two more runs on solo homers by Mountcastle and Aderlin Rodriguez.
Bowie had the tying run aboard in the fifth inning after a lead-off walk by Escobar and a throwing error by Alemais. Escobar worked around the threat with a pair of strikeouts and a popup to start a stretch of 13 batters retired by the Curve starter, Yeudy Garcia and Tate Scioneaux (Save, 4).
Scioneaux allowed a pair of singles in the ninth and worked with runners on first and third before he locked down the final two outs. Garcia sat down all six Baysox batters and recorded four strikeouts.
Christian Binford (Loss, 1-4) pitched the full eight innings for Bowie despite ten hit allowed by Curve batters. After a double play ended the fourth inning, Binford faced the minimum to close out the second complete game of his professional career.
The Curve head to Reading for a five-game series with the Fightin Phils starting on Thursday. Left-hander Cam Vieaux (5-1, 2.51) will start for the Curve against right-hander Harold Arauz (7-4, 4.62) for Reading. First pitch is set for 7:15 p.m. at FirstEnergy Stadium.
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