In the first of back-to-back Kids Day games which begin at 10:35 a.m., the Altoona Curve sent the 6,045 fans, most of them children home with a 3-2 Curve win in 11 innings.
\nWith both teams getting extra fine pitching for the second straight day, a sacrifice fly off the bat of light-hitting Altoona shortstop Brandon Chaves in the 11th inning proved to be the difference. \u201cYou always want to be up there and be the hero,\u201d Chaves said. \u201cToday was a lucky day.\u201d
\nJosh Bonifay and Ronnie Paulino led off the bottom of the 11th by drawing walks from Norwich reliever Anthony Pannone, who had just come on in relief to start the frame. Navigators manager Dave Machemer brought in Norwich righty Luke Anderson at that point. Anderson got one out on a sacrifice bunt by Curve left fielder Ray Sadler that moved the runners up to second and third base, but then Craig Stansberry fought off several tough pitches on the inside to work a full-count walk to load the bases. With the defense in for a possible play at the plate, Chaves swung at the first pitch, lifting a fly ball deep enough to right field to score Bonifay with the winning run.
\n\u201cHe was aggressive, he expanded the zone and got something mid-to-upper level of the strike zone,\u201d said Curve manager Tony Beasley in explaining the Chaves at bat. \u201cAnd he did what he was supposed to do, get the ball in the air with the infield in and gave us a chance, and we were able to score the winning run.
\n\u201cI thought Stansberry\u2019s bat was huge also. If he gets Stansberry out, he walks Chaves and forces us to make a move with the pitcher due up. I would probably have used (Jose) Bautista, but he\u2019s still iffy (after getting hurt running out a base hit on Monday). I didn\u2019t have anybody else left to use.\u201d
\nStansberry hadn\u2019t hit a fair ball all day, with three strikeouts and a foul pop in four previous trips to the plate.
\nCurve starter Paul Stewart had pitched the first seven innings allowing two runs on just three hits with six strike outs and two walks in one of his best outings of the season. Stewart began the season 3-1 with a 1.19 ERA, but then struggled dropping two decisions and giving up 17 earned runs in his next 16 innings on the mound.
\n\u201cStewart did a nice job,\u201d said Beasley. \u201cThe bullpen has been kind of beat up. We were kind of strapped. Izzy (Hansel Izquierdo) was taking his citizenship test. Johnson hadn\u2019t been on the mound to face hitters for a while. We used some guys last night, so we were kind of scrounging out there a little bit.\u201d
\nJames Johnson, who hadn\u2019t pitched to live hitters since May 13, after a spell on the DL, tossed a pair of scoreless innings allowing just one hit and then Curve closer Justin Kaye finished the game with two scoreless innings to pick up his first win of the year striking out two and walking one.
\n\u201cWe got through it, we were able to pitch well enough to stay in the ballgame,\u201d said Beasley, \u201cand hang on long enough until we able to score a run and win the ballgame.\u201d
\nEach team scored a solo tally in the first inning. Down 1-0, Jorge Cortes singled with one out, advanced to second on a base hit by Tom Evans and scored on a two-out single by Ronnie Paulino.
\nThe Curve took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fifth. Cortes and Evans singled with one down and when Evans base hit to center got past Norwich centerfielder Fred Lewis for an error, Cortes scored all the way from first.
\nCarlos Valderrama tied the game by taking Stewart yard into the left field bleachers and the pitchers on both sides tossed goose eggs the rest of the way until the 11th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the first of back-to-back Kids Day games which begin at 10:35 a.m., the Altoona Curve sent the 6,045 fans, most of them children home with a 3-2 Curve win in 11 innings. With both teams getting extra fine pitching for the second straight day, a sacrifice fly off the bat of light-hitting Altoona shortstop […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}