Altoona wins again, defeating Richmond, 9-1, to make it four of five this week

The Richmond Flying Squirrels fell to the Altoona Curve, 9-1, on Saturday night at Peoples Natural Gas Field.

Richmond (51-50, 18-14), the Double-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, has dropped four of five in this week’s series against Altoona (48-49, 14-15), the Double-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Hayden Birdsong (Loss, 0-1) made his Double-A debut and struck out four batters in his first two innings. He finished his outing with five strikeouts over 3.1 innings and allowed four runs with three walks.

The Curve opened the scoring in the third with an RBI double by Will Mathissen. Matt Fraizer and Chavez Young added RBI singles in the inning to open a 3-0 lead.

In the fourth, Mathiessen brought in a run with a sacrifice fly to extend the Curve’s lead to 4-0.

In the top of the fifth, Shane Matheny plated Hayden Cantrelle with a sacrifice fly. The run snapped a streak of 22 consecutive scoreless innings for the Richmond offense.

The Curve picked up an RBI single from Jackson Glenn and added three runs in the eighth to pull ahead, 9-1.

Richmond reliever Ben Madison struck out five batters over 2.2 innings and allowed two runs.

Altoona starter Aaron Shortridge (Win, 6-7) tied a career high with nine strikeouts over six innings, allowing one run.

The series concludes on Sunday afternoon. Right-hander Ryan Murphy (1-7, 4.83) will start for Richmond. Recently-acquired lefty Jackson Wolf will make his Pirates organization debut for Altoona. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Peoples Natural Gas Field.