Several nights ago, after a come-from behind 6-5 walkoff victory in the 10th inning, Curve centerfielder and leadoff hitter Chris Duffy said, “We get a different hero every night.” On Thursday Duffy was errant only in the time of day. Altoona and Akron concluded their four-game set with a 12 noon start.
Altoona pitcher Brady Borner took his turn in the spotlight, pitching seven scoreless innings to earn the 4-1 win for the sixth straight Curve win over Akron and fourth of the series as Altoona sweeps Akron to take a 12-1 lead over the Aeros in the 2004 season. Borner, now 4-3 lowers his ERA from 6.06 down to 5.34 with the effort. Brady struck out three and didn’t walk a batter.
“I was happy with the outing,” said Borner. “The numbers show that was one of my better outings. I was comfortable with a two-run lead coming out of the first inning and even more comfortable with a four run lead after seven. I was trying to get ahead in the count, which I didn’t do very well. I tried to get ahead and make them hit pitches that I wanted rather than pitches they wanted to hit. Obviously for a team to come in and get swept was frustrating for Akron, but we enjoyed it.”
Altoona gave Borner two scores in their first at bat to work with. Akron starter Fausto Carmona walked Duffy to begin the Altoona first. Duffy and the Eastern League’s leading hitter Jeff Keppinger worked the hit-and-run to perfection with Duffy speeding to third to put runners on the corners. Nate McLouth walked to load the sacks with nobody out. Carmona got cleanup hitter Ryan Doumit to strikeout, but Ray Sadler, who is hotter than a volcano at the plate, extended his current hitting streak to 13 games with a single that scored both Duffy and Keppinger to smooth the way for Borner.
Through the first five innings, Borner retired everybody he faced except Aeros’ first baseman Mike Aubrey, who doubled with two outs in the first and beat out a infield single with one down in the fourth. In the sixth, Scott Youngbauer singled to center with one out for the only other base hit Borner allowed in seven innings on the mound.
Borner’s teammates made it easier for him with solo tallies in the fifth and sixth to increase the Curve lead to 4-0.
Curve catcher Chris Snusz opened the fifth inning with a rare triple. The next hitter, Ray Navarrete, quickly got Snusz home with a sacrifice fly to center. Snusz has only five three-baggers in 898 trips to the plate in his minor league career, the last one while playing for Norwich in Double-A ball in 2001.
Following the game, Snusz said he would rather talk about Borner’s pitching performance than hitting his triple.
“Brady just handled today like we were playing play station or something,” said Snusz in explaining the performance of his battery mate. “He was throwing any pitch at any time in the count. It was fun to throw down something that no one was ever going to expect, and have him throw it for a strike. He kept them off balance, his changeup was kind of slow today and his curveball he just dropped in early in the count. Guys that are looking for fastballs are going to be way ahead of him.”
Sadler crushed his 12th home run of the year, a personal high for Ray, with half a season to go, leading off the sixth. During his 13-game hitting streak, Sadler has batted .407 with six home runs, four doubles, a triple, 14 RBI and scored 13 times to raise his batting average from .236 to .279.
Mike Crudale pitched the eighth for Altoona yielding an unearned run on singles by Jason Cooper and Brandon Pinckney with Cooper going to second on a error and third on Pinckney’s base hit before scoring on a sacrifice fly by Ben Francisco, who drove in five runs in the last three games of the set.
Jeff Miller pitched a one-two-three ninth inning with a pair of strikeouts, for Altoona to notch his first save of the year.
The Curve played on Thursday with Josh Bonifay, Yurendell DeCaster and Ronnie Paulino, three of Altoona’s hottest hitters of for the day and with the efforts of Borner, Snusz and Sadler, still won for the 17th time in their last 21 ballgames.
“Sadler and DeCaster have really solidified the bottom of the lineup,” said Curve manager Tony Beasley. “We coming here that the ball doesn’t carry in this ballpark. It hasn’t been that way. The ball has been carrying (this season), but we have hit some balls pretty well.
“We still play small ball. We still bunt and hit-and-run. We focus on doing the little things. Because, I still believe that’s what wins and losses ballgames. You can’t rely on that long ball, that’s going to come and go. But the situational stuff has to be there every day.”
