August 23, 2014 – New Britain Rock Cats 6, Altoona Curve 1 – Peoples Natural Gas Field (Altoona PA)

Cat scratch fever (headline courtesy of the Altoona recap)

Umpires: HP: John Libka. 1B: Brian Peterson. 3B: Blake Felix.

Weather: 63 degrees, cloudy.

Wind: 6 mph, Varies.

T: 3:06.

Att: 6,278.

It’s been a down year this season for the Altoona Curve, and they lived down to their record Saturday evening. The Rock Cats struck first in the opening frame, when Curve starter and loser Zack Dodson hit the leadoff batter and subsequently gave up a walk and a run-scoring double. They added to their lead in the fourth on a single, double, RBI groundout, and RBI single. Meanwhile, the Curve didn’t record their first hit until Jarek Cunningham doubled with one out in the bottom of the sixth, later scoring on a single by Ramon Cabrera for the only Altoona run of the night.

Pirates reliever Stolmy Pimentel had a rocky rehab outing in the top of the seventh, being charged with the remaining three Rock Cats runs, yielding a double and three walks (two with the bases loaded), while also making an error on a bunt. Former Nat Collin Balester did pitch a scoreless top of the ninth for the Curve.

We had great seats (Section 212, Row 11, 3-4), in the first row of the upper level, looking right down the third base line (similar view to our regular Nationals Park location, but much closer). Several foul pops were in our general direction, although none came particularly close to us. Went with the pulled pork sandwich, which was quite a bargain at $5.00 (not to mention the bottle of water for just $1.75).