ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) — Ryan Howard set a Reading Phillies record with his 34th home run of the season, but it wasn’t enough to avoid a 7-3 loss to the Altoona Curve on Friday night in Eastern League play.
Howard, who leads all of baseball in homers, hit another one in the ninth inning to surpass the previous Reading record of 33 home runs set by Greg Luzinski in 1970.
But Ray Sadler and Chris Duffy also homered for the Curve, while Altoona starter Neal McDade (3-1) limited Reading to one run and scattered four hits over seven innings.
Sadler homered in the fourth and Duffy had a two-run homer in the sixth against Reading starter Keith Bucktrot (3-3) who gave up all of Altoona’s runs on 13 hits in 5 2-3 innings.
Ryan Fleming had a sacrifice fly in the sixth for Reading’s first run, while Russ Jacobson hit a solo homer in the eighth for Reading to trim the lead to 7-2.
