READING, Pa. – The Reading Fightin Phils (11-8, 41-47) dropped their series opener against the Altoona Curve (8-11, 39-49) by a score of 6-2 on Friday night. The Pittsburgh Pirates\u2019 Double-A affiliate used four unanswered runs and a pair of homers to take the lid-lifter at FirstEnergy Stadium.<\/p>\n
Altoona drew first blood in the opening frame, as Callan Moss shot an RBI single to right field, scoring Keiner Delgado.<\/p>\n
The Curve would hold the same 1-0 advantage through the first three frames before doubling up in the fourth stanza. Murf Gray (1), the Pirates\u2019 no. 17 prospect (per MLB Pipeline) clubbed a solo home run to left field, marking his first Double-A hit in his Altoona Debut. This gave Andy Fox\u2019s squad a 2-0 advantage.<\/p>\n
Reading found an answer in the bottom half of the fourth inning. Raider Tello provided the equalizer, socking a two-RBI single to left-center field. Tello\u2019s hit scored both Aroon Escobar and Alex Binelas.<\/p>\n
Altoona pushed back in the top of the sixth inning, as Derek Berg trotted home on a wild pitch. This allowed the Pirates\u2019 Double-A affiliate to regain the lead, 3-2.<\/p>\n
The Curve kept the momentum in their favor in the seventh frame when Keiner Delgado (5) crushed a two-run home run to left field, scoring Shalin Polanco. The home run was Altoona\u2019s second of the day, and it built their advantage to 5-2.<\/p>\n
The Curve scored for the third straight inning in the eighth, as Lonnie White Jr. smacked an RBI double to plate Callan Moss. This pushed Altoona\u2019s lead to 6-2.<\/p>\n
Dominic Pipkin (2-1) got the win for the Curve, firing off two scoreless, hitless frames with a walk and a strikeout in a superb relief appearance.<\/p>\n
Luke Russo (8-5) took the loss on behalf of the Fightins, relinquishing three runs on five hits with a walk and five punchouts over 5.1 innings of work.<\/p>\n
Moss led all Altoona hitters, going 3-for-5 with a double, a run scored and a run batted in.<\/p>\n
Tello\u2019s 2-for-4 performance shined the brightest for the R-Phils, as he went 2-for\u20134 with a pair of runs driven in.<\/p>\n
The Fightin Phils remain home through Sunday against the Altoona Curve, Double-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. – The Reading Fightin Phils (11-8, 41-47) dropped their series opener against the Altoona Curve (8-11,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[4773,51245,128,130,129,44158,726],"class_list":["post-246866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-_sports_top_stories","tag-milb","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-reading-fightin-phils","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}