Curve Bats Explode again in Erie

For the second night in a row the Curve offense took no prisoners as they scored six runs across the first two innings.  Grossman led off the game with a triple and trotted home two batters later thanks to a Tony Sanchez RBI single.  Altoona made it 3-0 with the very next batter as Matt Curry hit his second home run in as many days, both of them two-run shots that gave the Curve identical 3-0 leads. 

The offense kept on chugging along in the second, putting up another three-run frame as seven men came to the plate.  Elevys Gonzalez began the inning with a double and scored later in the inning when Brock Holt smashed his first home run of the season, a two-run blast to right.  Kelvin de la Cruz (1-3) hit the very next batter in Sanchez and was subsequently ejected from the game.  The Curve made the hit batter count as fellow catcher and Wednesday night's DH Ramon Cabrera brought Sanchez in with an RBI groundout later in the frame.

It would be Matt McSwain (2-0) from there on out as the right hander tossed five innings in his second start of the year.  He permitted two runs on six hits while walking two and striking out four.  By the time he left the game the Curve had opened up an 11-2 lead thanks to another three-run inning (the fourth) and a two-run sixth. 

Erie made the game interesting late with six runs (five earned) off reliever Kris Harvey across the sixth and seventh innings.  Duke Welker was called upon to hold the line in the seventh and allowed one of his two inherited runners to score before getting out of the jam.  The Kirkland, Wash. native went on to pitch the eighth and ninth and did not allow another Erie run to earn his second save of the campaign. 

The 11 Curve runs set a new season high while the 14 total hits by the Curve on Wednesday night tie a season-best.  Eight of Altoona's nine starters had hits in the contest while Grossman, Sanchez, Curry, Cabrera and Jeremy Farrell all had multi-hit games.  Sanchez's 2-for-5 night helped him extend his consecutive games-on-base streak to 14 games dating back to April 10.