ALTOONA, Pa. – Po-Yu Chen tossed seven innings for Altoona Saturday night, but the RubberDucks handed the Curve their eighth shutout defeat of the season by a 3-0 margin at Peoples Natural Gas Field.
Altoona was held without a hit until the sixth inning of the contest, when Joe Perez dropped a single into right field after back-to-back walks to load the bases with one out. Carter Bins followed with a fly ball to left field, where Kahlil Watson threw out Jase Bowen attempting to tag at the plate to end the inning.
RubberDucks starter Parker Messick struck out 10 batters in 4 2/3 innings pitched without allowing a hit. He walked three batters and hit Bowen with a pitch in the first. Bradley Hanner followed in relief, tossing 1 1/3 scoreless innings. Trey Benton then followed with 1 2/3 scoreless frames before Lenny Torres Jr. ended the contest with 1 1/3 in relief.
Altoona led off the eighth inning with back-to-back singles by Yoyner Fajardo and Bowen. The two advanced into scoring position on a wild pitch, but Fajardo, who extended his on-base streak to 14 games in the loss, was thrown out attempting to score at home on a wild pitch.
Chen struck out two batters and matched a season high with three walks in the loss. He surrendered two runs in the third inning on back-to-back doubles from Yordys Valdez and CJ Kayfus before Watson knocked an RBI single. Milan Tolentino hit an RBI double later in the sixth.
Tyler Samaniego tossed the final two innings of relief and set a new season high with six strikeouts. He allowed just one hit in his two scoreless frames for the Curve.
The Curve wrap up their six-game series with the Akron RubberDucks, Double-A affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians, at 6 p.m. Sunday, which will be broadcast on SportsNet Pittsburgh. Altoona will send right-hander Chris Gau to the mound, while the RubberDucks counter with left-hander Ryan Webb.
Read More: RubberDucks hand Curve 8th shutout loss of season | Sports