AKRON, OH. – Altoona and Akron played to a 5-5 tie through six innings before the teams had to suspend the game due to inclement weather.
The teams will pick up the game at the top of the seventh at 5:05 p.m. on Thursday and play it to its completion and then play the scheduled nine inning game after a 30-minute break between games.
The Curve jumped on rehabbing Cleveland Guardians left-hander Erik Sabrowski; who started on short notice to fit in his inning before any rain concerns. Duce Gourson reached on an error by LF Wuilfredo Antunez and after a strikeout, Titus Dumitru walked to put men at second and third. Former Curve RHP Jack Carey entered with two on and two out after Sabrowski hit his hard pitch limit and served up an inside-the-park homer to Jack Brannigan who came all the way around after Antunez missed on a diving catch.
Altoona added another run to the early lead with a long solo homer from Omar Alfonzo in the second.
Curve righty Matt Ager fired three hitless innings to start the night, Akron tagged him for five runs in the fourth inning to take the lead. Ager, who left after allowing an RBI single to catcher Cameron Barstad, allowed more than three runs in an outing for just the second time in 12 appearances between Greensboro and Altoona. Mike Walsh entered after Ager and promptly shut down the fourth inning, tossed a scoreless fifth and worked around a 1-out triple in the sixth to deliver 2.1 innings of relief. It was the longest outing of Walsh’s season and he struck out two.
Alfonzo socked a second solo homer in the sixth inning, marking the first multi-homer game of his career. Altoona has hit 64 homers in 65 games this season.
Altoona continues their six-game series at Akron on Thursday night. LHP Connor Oliver takes the ball for the Curve, while the RubberDucks will start LHP Rafe Schlesinger.
For tickets and more information on the Altoona Curve, visit AltoonaCurve.com, call 877.99.CURVE or stop by the PNG Field box office. Additionally, the Stockyard Team Store is open Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., during every home game and online 24/7/365.