A note from Brett on Wednesday 18th July 2007
Is all good!
Every scan I have had has said that it's all okay and that I am okay to resume activity
I will start small and slow and hope to progress to swinging in about a week or so
The doctor said it is going to hurt - probably a lot - but it's not doing further damage
so try to swing through it
He is going to give me some painkillers and I am going to go from there
If after two to three weeks of trying to play and it's still being sore,
I will go to Pittsburgh to see another hand specialist for a second opinion
But as for today, I am starting to do things!!
About bloody time, huh!!

A note from Brett on Monday 23rd July 2007
Well, today went really good
A lot better than I thought it was going to be
I had fifteen dry swings with a fungo bat
and surprisingly had zero pain or discomfort
I also got to play catch as well
It all went really well!!
I am not sure of my plans tomorrow
but I am sure it will be a little more than today
Not bad for a start!!

Curve Game Day Notes on Wednesday 25th July 2007

The Result
Mets - 7 runs to 2

The Curve - Year-to-Date
52 wins and 49 losses

Brett's Position and the Batting Order
Did Not Play
Playing
Batting - #

Brett's at-bats
First plate appearance

Second plate appearance

Third plate appearance

Fourth plate appearance

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

Heard during the game

Email from Brett

Game Reports

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The Binghamton Mets scored five times in the fourth inning and coasted to a 7-2 victory over the Curve Wednesday afternoon at Blair County Ballpark

Curve starter Josh Shortslef retired the first nine B-Mets he faced in working a perfect first three innings, but the tide quickly turned in the fourth
With the Curve leading 1-0, Rafael Arroyo led off with a single, which was quickly followed by a Miguel Negron single
Mark Kiger then singled home Arroyo to tie the game
Mike Carp supplied the fouth consecutive hit for Binghamton, a double that scored Negron to give Binghamton a 2-1 lead
Caleb Stewart followed with a single to bring in Kiger and Brett Harper scored Carp with a single to make it a 4-1 advantage
A batter later, Ryan Coultas bounced out to plate Stewart and the lead was 5-1

Shortslef (2-11) departed the ballgame after the fourth and Romulo Sanchez worked a scoreless fifth

Sanchez returned for the sixth however and found trouble quickly
Stewart led off the inning with a solo home run to left field
Harper make it back-to-back blasts when he took Sanchez out to right field and with the two home runs, the B-Mets built a 7-1 lead

Jason Delaney led off the bottom of the sixth with a solo home run off of Binghamton starter Marcos Carvajal to cut the lead to 7-2
The home run extended Delaney's team record RBI streak to 11 games
Delaney finished the game 2-for-4, and also extended his hit streak to 12 games with a single in the first inning

The Curve had scored first in the first inning as Steven Pearce drove in Neil Walker with the game's first run

Shortslef lost for the 11th time this season, allowing five earned runs on six hits in four innings

The Curve dropped to 4-16 overall in Shortslef's 20 starts this season

Altoona also fell to 2-4 against Binghamton this season, having now lost both three-game series
The two teams will finish their nine-game season series August 14-16 in Binghamton

Carvajal (5-7) claimed the victory for the B-Mets, working six innings and allowing just two earned runs on eight hits

The Curve will begin a four-game series against division leading Akron at Canal Park on Thrusday night
Game one is scheduled for 7.05pm as RHP Yoslan Herrera (5-5, 4.57) will start for the Curve against LHP Shawn Nottingham (7-8, 4.18) for the Aeros

Caleb Stewart and Brett Harper hit back-to-back homers in the sixth, capping off a 7-2 Binghamton Mets win over the Altoona Curve at Blair County Ballpark Wednesday

Binghamton took two of three in the series

Altoona (52-49) went ahead in the first when Marcos Carvajal gave up a two-out double to Neil Walker, who scored on Steven Pearce’s single to left

However, the B-Mets (45-57) took the lead for good on six straight hits during a five-run fourth
Curve starter Josh Shortslef (2-11) had retired the first nine in a row before Rafael Arroyo and Miguel Negron opened this inning with singles
Mark Kiger singled home Arroyo and Mike Carp doubled in Negron with the go-ahead run
Stewart singled home Kiger and Harper’s base hit scored Carp before Ryan Coultas brought in Stewart with a groundout for a 5-1 B-Mets lead

Binghamton added two more in the sixth on Stewart and Harper’s back-to-back homers before Jason Delaney took Carvajal (5-7) deep in the bottom of the frame for the game’s final run

Notes
Altoona out-hit Binghamton 11-10, but the Curve left 12 men on base
Harper, who also went deep Tuesday, has homered in back-to-back games four times this season
Stewart has been involved both times the B-Mets have hit back-to-back homers, going back-to-back with Fernando Martinez 5/15 @ CON

Wednesday was Tim Leiper bobblehead day at Blair County Ballpark
It didn’t involve giving away little figurines of the Curve manager, but it did include a very visible display of frustration between Leiper and a pitcher who has endured a rough season

The unusual occurrence took place in the fourth inning of the Curve’s 7-2 loss to Binghamton before 5,633 fans

Altoona starter Josh Shortslef easily retired the first nine B-Mets through three innings

Then everything fell apart for Shortslef in the fourth as he allowed six consecutive hits and five runs that put the Curve in a 5-1 deficit
Leiper visited Shortslef on the mound after the fifth hit, which made it 3-1, and gave the pitcher an earful
The manager, Shortslef and catcher Brian Peterson huddled closely together on the mound to try and keep the meeting as private as possible, but there was no question what was happening
Leiper chastised Shortslef for several seconds, with the manager’s head resembling a bobblehead as it bounced around in anger

Leiper downplayed the incident after the game when told it was obvious he looked pretty heated
‘‘No, I wasn’t’’ the manager said

There’s some history behind Wednesday’s situation
Shortslef, who dropped to 2-11 with the loss, is a member of the Pirates’ 40-man roster who earlier this season had his heart questioned by Curve pitching coach Ray Searage
Shortslef has had a knack for getting off to slow starts, leading the coaches to question his motivation and to have to come to the mound and get on him early in games

Shortslef looked sharp early Wednesday before faltering in the fourth

Typically when a pitcher is struggling, the first mound visit is made by the pitching coach
Leiper going out seemed a little odd at first, but he clearly had some things he wanted to tell Shortslef

‘‘You’ve got to make better pitches’’ Leiper said he told his pitcher
‘‘That’s just the bottom line
You don’t want to let it get away from you, don’t want to lay fastballs in there first pitch
I think they got hits on fastballs on first pitches
And you just need to make better quality pitches with guys in scoring position
That’s all you’ve got to do’’

The inning could have unfolded much better for Shortslef with one key play
The first two hitters singled, then Mark Kiger hit a ball toward third baseman Neil Walker that may have turned into a double play
Walker, however, was fooled into thinking the B-Mets were attempting a double steal because the runner at first base, Miguel Negron, took a running lead
Walker broke toward the bag with the pitch thinking there would be a play on the baserunner trying to steal, and Kiger’s single bounced right through the spot he vacated

‘‘So there’s a double play that could have changed things’’ Leiper said

The manager mentioned he told Shortslef to minimize the damage so the red-hot Curve offense would have a chance to come back
‘‘Keep it under four runs’’ Leiper said of the conversation
‘‘Do whatever you’ve got to do but just keep the game close because we can hit, we can drive in runs’’

Shortslef might be thinking otherwise
He’s seen the offense put up big numbers for other pitchers, just not for him
In the lefty’s 20 starts, the Curve have scored three runs or less 11 times

B-Mets starter Marcos Carvajal (5-7) gave up two runs in six innings for the win

Steven Pearce singled home a run in the first for Altoona, and Jason Delaney homered in the sixth to extend his franchise record to 11 straight games with an RBI

The loss was a bad one for the Curve since it was the rubber game of a series against a team that came to town with a 43-56 record
Altoona entered the series playing well, having won three of four at Harrisburg and seven of nine overall, but now heads to Akron with two bad losses in three days (10-2 and 7-2) because of poor starting pitching

Outfielder Vic Buttler said the offensive players haven’t become frustrated with the pitching staff
‘‘No, we’re out here, we’re a team, and we have to play as a team’’ Buttler said
‘‘We go out there, and we stick behind each other’’

The Curve staff is third from the bottom in the league with a 4.56 ERA, but Leiper said there’s no reason to get frustrated with the pitchers

‘‘It’s not going to help’’ the manager said
‘‘What’s the bottom line?
We’ve got to win
We’ve got to find a way to win with what we have
There’s games they’ve gone out there and pitched great, too, and we haven’t scored
So it’s a matter of keeping those two components together
You can’t sit here and point fingers
We’re a team
Everybody here’s capable of winning games
Every reliever is capable of coming in and getting outs, every hitter is capable of driving in runs and getting on base
You’ve just got to mesh it together, and good teams will do it’’