CURVE, Pa. – On a night that saw seven combined homers, 28 hits and 20 runs, the Altoona Curve fell to the Reading Fightin Phils, 12-8, in a back-and-forth contest on Saturday night at FirstEnergy Stadium.
After allowing four longballs on Friday, Altoona (33-28) surrendered five home runs on Saturday to Reading (44-19), who continues to hold the best record in minor league baseball and has a six-game winning streak.
Trailing 7-2 heading into the sixth inning, the Curve got a lead-off single from Anderson Feliz and a walk from Erich Weiss to set the table for a one-out, three-run home run from Jose Osuna to bring the Curve within 7-5.
Reading starter Mark Leiter Jr.’s night ended following Osuna’s home run, and the Curve tagged reliever Jeremy Bleich (Win, 2-1) for four consecutive, two-out hits, including an RBI single from Stetson Allie to cut the gap to one.
Reliever Josh Smith followed with his first professional hit, a two-run double off the right field wall, to give the Curve an 8-7 lead.
The Fightin Phils answered the Curve with five runs in the bottom of the inning, all coming off home runs against Smith (Loss, 1-2), including a three-run home run from Rhys Hoskins and a two-run blast by Angelo Mora to give Reading a 12-8 lead.
Neither team scored over the final two and a half innings, and the Curve failed to comeback in the ninth despite Weiss drawing a lead-off walk, Fightin’s reliever Miguel Nunez struck out the side to retire the Curve.
Austin Meadows extended his hitting streak to 20 games with a solo home run in the top of the first inning, but the Fightins responded with a three-run home run from Cozens to make it a 3-1 game. Cozens ended the night with six RBI.
Reading scored single runs in the third and fourth innings to extend their lead to 5-1 before the Curve got a run back in the top of the fifth with a solo home run from Espinal, trimming the Reading lea to three. Cozens’ second home run of the night padded the Reading lead to 7-2.
Curve starter Clay Holmes tossed 4.1 innings, allowing seven runs on 11 hits, issuing three walks and striking out two.
The Curve close the seven-game road trip in Reading on Sunday at 5:05 p.m. Altoona lefty Cody Dickson (5-2, 6