READING, Pa. – Austin Meadows doubled to extend his hitting streak to 19 games, but the Reading Fightin Phils blasted four homers to beat the Altoona Curve, 9-2.
Altoona (33-27) fell behind 7-0 through four innings to Reading (43-19), who holds the best record in Minor League Baseball.
The 19-game streak for Meadows ties the second-longest in Altoona franchise history, matching Alex Presley (2010) and Willy Garcia (2015). He is just two games shy of the franchise-record longest streak by Kevin Sefcik, who compiled a 21-game streak in 2002.
In his Double-A debut, Alex McRae (Loss, 0-1) gave up back-to-back home runs to Dylan Cozens and Rhys Hoskins in the third inning to give the Fightin Phils a 2-0 lead.
Aaron Brown and Jorge Alfaro each blasted two-run homers in the fourth, with an RBI single by Jesmuel Valentin sandwiched between them, to extend the Reading lead to 7-0.
McRae allowed seven earned runs on eight hits in 3.2 innings with four walks and five strikeouts.
The Curve cracked the scoreboard with an RBI double by Harold Ramirez in the fifth, but the Fightin Phils answered with two more runs in the bottom of the inning, both unearned runs against Jhondaniel Medina.
Ramirez singled in a run in the seventh to cap his three-hit, two-RBI night.
Jared Lakind pitched two scoreless innings, stretching his current scoreless streak to 21.1 innings, the longest by a Curve pitcher this season.
Meadows finished the game 1-for-4. Chris Diaz went 1-for-4 and scored both Altoona runs.
The Curve and Fightin Phils continue the series on Saturday night at FirstEnergy Stadium. Right-hander Clay Holmes (5-4, 4.99) will be on the mound for Altoona, countered by Reading right-hander Mark Leiter (2-0, 2.61). First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m.
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