Curve lefty Steven Brualt whirled six shutout innings and drove home a pair of runs to take down the Squirrels 3-0 on Tuesday night at Peoples Natural Gas Field in Altoona, PA. Squirrels southpaw Kelvin Marte was saddled with the loss in a quality start for Richmond. The win for Altoona (56-48) advanced the Curve to two games ahead of Richmond (53-49) in second place of the Western Division. The Squirrels have lost four consecutive games and will attempt to avoid the sweep on Wednesday at noon.
The Curve took a 1-0 lead off Marte in the second inning. JaCoby Jones singled to open the frame and moved to second via a groundout. Marte then walked Sebastian Valle and induced a double play ball that was mishandled to load the bases. Altoona pitcher Steven Brault punched a chopper through the right side of the infield to produce the run. Marte escaped without further damage by striking out Max Moroff with the bases loaded.
Brault tacked on another run at the plate with his second hit in the fourth inning for a 2-0 lead. With Valle at second base, Brault pounded a chopper over Mitch Delfino at third. Valle was waived home on the hit and slid safely in front of the tag at the plate. The Curve added a third run in the seventh on an RBI double from Max Moroff in the seventh. Moroff connected on two hits to add to his league-leading 122 on the year.
Steven Brault earned the win with six shutout innings. The lefty struck out nine and allowed just two hits with one walk. Kelvin Marte was hit with the loss in a quality start. He allowed just three runs (two earned) on eight hits in seven innings of work. He was replaced by Derek Law in the eighth. Law retired all three hitters he faced. Hunter Cole extended his hitting streak for Richmond to ten 10 games with a single in the ninth. Cole also threw out a runner at the plate in the sixth inning to keep the Altoona lead to two runs.
The Squirrels conclude the seven game road trip in Altoona on Wednesday afternoon against the Curve. Richmond LHP Matt Gage (2-0, 1.64) will start for the Squirrels against Curve LHP Zach Dodson (4-7 4.02). First pitch is set for 12:00PM with the Flying Squirrels Pregame Warmup starting at 11:00AM on Fox Sports 910 and FoxSportsRichmond.com.
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