The Result
Curve - 13 runs to 1

The Curve - Year-to-Date
69 won and 53 lost

Brett's Position and the Batting Order

Did Not Play
----------Recovering from injury
----------Refer to game on Saturday 12th August - click here
Playing
Batting - #

At the end of the Game
0 hits from 0 at-bats

Brett's at-bats
First at-bat
Righthanded pitcher

Second at-bat
Righthanded pitcher

Third at-bat
Righthanded pitcher

Heard during the Game

Email from Brett

Thursday 17th August 2006
As for the 'CANKLE'
I had x-rays today and they were negative!!
I am now going in for an MRI tomorrow to see about the extent of ligament damage
He said if it was severe there would be a lot more colour and swelling - so that is good news!!
The MRI as of now is at 7.30pm so there wont be any more news til late tonight

Friday 18th August 2006
Had the MRI, and I have a 'grade one' tear in my ankle
It's the same thing that would happen to anyone that sprained an ankle
It might just take a little longer to heal because I hurt it in the front instead of the side like most people do
I am going to run tomorrow and see how it goes
But as soon as I am ready - even though it's going to be with pain - he will put me back in the lineup
So we just go from here and see what happens day to day

Game Reports

Andrew McCutchen is living up to his billing as one of the top prospects in the Pirates’ organization

The 19-year old had four RBI including a two-run homerun in the Curve’s 13-1 rout of the Harrisburg Senators on Friday night at Blair County Ballpark - just his third game in Double-A

The game was played before a season-high crowd of 9,017 fans

McCutchen, named as the second-best prospect in Pittsburgh farm system by Baseball America, finished the game 3-for-6 and has picked up at least one hit in each of his three games since joining the Curve earlier in the week

Landon Jacobsen started for the Curve and cruised to his thirteenth victory of the season, tying him with Adam Miller of Akron for the league lead in that department
Jacobsen pitched seven shutout innings and allowed just three hits to the Senators, who were no-hit by Trenton’s Tyler Clippard on Thursday night

The Curve’s offense scored the first twelve runs of the game, including three in the third and fourth frames

Nyjer Morgan crossed the plate first for the Curve, scoring the first of his two runs on a Simon Pond RBI-single that tied Pond with Kory Casto for the most RBI in the Eastern League

Morgan was 4-for-5 in the game, but was the only Curve starter that didn’t have at least one RBI

Other players with multi-hit games included Brian Bixler, McCutchen, Pond and Ray Sadler

Altoona tallied seventeen total hits, one shy of a season high

After two more runs in the third, Altoona scored three times in the fourth using three straight base hits to start the inning and a sacrifice fly by Dave Parrish, who finished the game with two RBI

The Curve blew the game open with six runs in the sixth, including a two-run homer by McCutchen
The first seven batters of the inning reached base for Altoona, with the first six crossing home plate, including Bixler’s team-leading third score of the game

The Curve plated six runs on both starter Kevin Maust and relief pitcher Oscar Alvarez
Maust allowed six runs - five earned - on nine hits and two walks to fall to his tenth loss of the season
Alvarez spelled Maust with a scoreless fifth inning but failed to record an out in the sixth before allowing six runs and being replaced by Dan Kolb

Before the end of the game, second baseman Marcos Yepez would come on to pitch for Harrisburg, who used a total of five hurlers in the loss

The Curve and Senators continue their series on Saturday night at 7.05pm at Blair County Ballpark
Mike Connolly (7-6, 4.68) will start for Altoona against Beltran Perez (8-5, 3.04)

Landon Jacobsen posted his thirteenth win and Andrew McCutchen hit his first Double-A homer as Altoona rolled to a 13-1 victory over visiting Harrisburg on Friday

Jacobsen (13-7) tied Akron's Adam Miller for the Eastern League lead in wins
The 27-year-old right-hander yielded three hits and a walk while striking out one over seven scoreless innings
He improved to 4-0 with a 1.04 ERA in his last four outings against the Senators (57-66)

McCutchen, called up from Class A Hickory three days ago, went 3-for-6 with four RBIs
The 19-year-old center fielder blasted a two-run shot during a six-run sixth for the Curve (68-53)

Altoona leadoff man Nyjer Morgan went 4-for-6 with two runs scored and Simon Pond had two RBIs

Kory Casto's RBI single in the eighth snapped a twenty-two inning scoreless streak for the struggling Senators (57-66), who were no-hit by Trenton's Tyler Clippard on Thursday

Harrisburg has lost nine in a row

Starter David Maust (6-10) surrendered six runs - five earned - on nine hits and two walks in four innings

Just how far can the Harrisburg Senators sink before they find this season's rock bottom?

In front of 9,017 fans at Blair County Ballpark last night, the Altoona Curve dug the Senators even deeper with a 13-1 whipping that featured seventeen hits and RBIs by eight of nine starters

Harrisburg (57-67) tied a season-low with its ninth straight loss and fell to 6-21 over its last twenty-seven games

Altoona (69-53), which had been struggling offensively, needed only six innings to surpass its run total from the previous five games

The Curve netted three runs each in the third and fourth innings to chase left-handed starter David Maust (6-10)

Then the hit parade continued against reliever Oscar Alvarez in the sixth as Altoona sent eleven batters to the plate in a six-run outburst

Curve right-hander Landon Jacobsen (13-7) fired seven shutout innings, allowing just three hits and a walk

Kory Casto's RBI single in the eighth snapped the Senators' streak of twenty-two consecutive scoreless innings dating to Wednesday
The team was no-hit by Trenton's Tyler Clippard Thursday night in Harrisburg

Offensively the Curve were paced by 19-year-old Andrew McCutchen's 3-for-6 effort that included a two-run homer and four RBIs

Nyjer Morgan was 4-for-6 and scored two runs

Every starter but Jacobsen had at least one hit, but the Altoona pitcher added a sacrifice fly

Notes
Harrisburg sent thirty-eight hitless batters to the plate between Josh Whitesell's ninth-inning single Wednesday night and his second-inning single yesterday
After allowing the leadoff runner to reach in seven of nine innings Thursday, Senators pitchers landed the leadoff runner on base in each of the first six innings last night
2B Marcos Yepez, who pitched the eighth inning for Harrisburg, made the eighth mound appearance by a Senators position player this year

The Curve couldn’t have drawn up a better opponent than the one in town this weekend
Altoona kicked off a key seven-game homestand against a disheveled Harrisburg club that came in lugging an eight-game losing streak

The Senators also were no-hit Thursday night by Trenton’s Tyler Clippard, then there’s that baffling statistic that says the Curve are 55-19 all-time against Harrisburg at Blair County Ballpark

Given all that, the outcome Friday night wasn’t a big surprise

The Curve battered the Senators, 13-1, with newcomer Andrew McCutchen showing the BCB crowd of 9,017 why he’s such a prized prospect

“The fans being out there really hyped me up” said the 19-year-old McCutchen, who homered, had three hits and four RBIs in just his third Double-A game
“I’ve never seen that many fans at a game, and to play in front of these fans and perform for them and do well is a great feeling"

The crowd was the largest of the season (not counting the All-Star Game) and fifth-biggest ever at BCB

The Curve offense treated the fans to a hit parade, roping seventeen hits and getting contributions up and down the order
Eight of the nine starters had an RBI, and the only one who didn’t, Nyjer Morgan, had four hits and two runs
Pitcher Landon Jacobsen was the only starter without a hit, but he had an RBI on a sacrifice fly

Having Jacobsen, fifth in the league with a 2.90 ERA, on the mound was yet another reason the Curve figured to have the upper hand
Jacobsen (13-7) tossed seven shutout innings and moved back into a tie for the league lead in victories

Despite all the obvious advantages, the Curve camp isn’t taking Harrisburg lightly

“We try not to think too much about the other team, if they’re having misfortunes or what not, because the minute you do that, you take them for granted and they take advantage of you” reliever Chris Hernandez said

“Every team is capable of beating you on any given day” manager Tim Leiper said
“That’s a good team over there, and we had a good day today and they had a bad day today”

The Curve actually had a very good day, scoring three runs in the third and three more in the fourth to take control

Singling out one big hit in a seventeen hit attack may seem trite, but Brandon Chaves had such a hit in the third inning
Facing an 0-2 count with a 2-0 lead and two outs, Chaves went down and swatted a low changeup over shortstop to drive home Simon Pond
That’s the kind of mentally frustrating hit the Harrisburg players surely hated to see, and though it made it just 3-0 at the time, it set the tone for the rest of the night

“Any hit right now is good for me, and I’m glad I helped the team” Chaves said
“We came out swinging the bats today”

McCutchen sure did, going 3-for-6 with RBI singles in the fourth and eighth
He drilled a two-run homer in the sixth to make it 8-0, giving him an impressive fifteen long balls in his first full pro season

“The Pirates know that I can develop into a power hitter” said McCutchen, who hit 14 of his homers at low-A Hickory
“I don’t know if they were expecting me to have as many as I have this year”

Leiper, for one, isn’t surprised to see the ball jump off the outfielder’s bat
“You watch him swing the bat and see what he’s capable of” Leiper said
“It’s hard to put a number on how many a guy’s going to hit
19-year-old guys don’t usually hit that many home runs
But he has a small strike zone, and he has great leverage and he really keeps that bat in the zone”

The other prized prospect who just joined the club, catcher Neil Walker, sat out Friday

Harrisburg starter David Maust (6-10) gave up six runs - five earned - over four innings to take the loss

Reliever Oscar Alvarez worked a scoreless fifth, then gave up six runs - five earned - without retiring a batter in the sixth

The Senators used three straight hits to score in the eighth inning and prevent the Curve from their biggest shutout win ever

Any win is big these days with Reading charging hard in the battle for the Southern Division’s final playoff spot
The R-Phils won again Friday - they’re on a 32-11 streak - and are only five games back, but the Curve hold their playoff fate in their hands with fourteen of the final eighteen games at home

“It’s a fantastic advantage for us” Hernandez said
“So we’re definitely going to take advantage of this and probably play fairly well at home”

“We’re in our comfort zone at home” Leiper noted, “and we hold all the cards to the rest of our season”

Around the Curve
RHP John Van Benschoten did not accompany the team back to Altoona as he was activated from the Pirates’ disabled list and optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis
Van Benschoten went five innings and won his only rehab start for the Curve
OF Brett Roneberg, who hasn’t played in a week, underwent an MRI on his injured left ankle Friday and expects to find out the results today
IF Brant Ust was activated from the disabled list Friday, while OF Rafael Alvarez was assigned to the roster of the GCL Pirates
Jacobsen is scheduled for three more starts during the regular season and has a chance to surpass Bronson Arroyo’s team record of 15 wins, set in 1999
Senators infielder Marcos Yepez pitched the eighth inning, giving up one run on two hits