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Game #101 - Wednesday 25th July - v Binghamton Mets

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Brett back on the Disabled List - Monday 25th June 2007

A note from Brett on Sunday 24th June 2007
I know things haven't been going really well lately - and I am afraid it just got a little worse!!
I have hurt my hand again and I am going back on the Disabled List again tomorrow
I am pretty sure of this because I told Tim Leiper I couldn't swing
and that it will take some time just like before
I am very disappointed just as I am sure that you all are
There is nothing I can do now besides trying to rehab as best I can
and get healthy as quickly as possible
I feel like crap over here right now and might just go see a movie tonight to kill some time
and get my mind off of it all
But tomorrow I will be good again and do all I can to get better!!

A note from Brett on Tuesday 26th June 2007
Well, here we are again
I have been to the doctor again today and got an MRI like I did with my shoulder
It hurt a lot more this time when they put the dye in - and I about went through the roof!
Got the reading 'sort of' back tonight
The assistant read it and said it was a deep bone bruise and it should heel to 100% over time
Not sure how long that is just yet
I find out the final reading tomorrow but it should be okay
The bruise is in the same place where I broke it in January
Sucks!!
I am now going to go into rehab and I think I am staying here to do it
and I just hope it doesn't take too long
Also there are two more outfielders coming tomorrow
I have to talk to Brian Graham in the next few days about what they want me to do
I honestly am not sure about my playing time when I do come back
but we'll cross the bridge when we come to it
Just an update and I will be back online tomorrow

A note from Brett on Thursday 28th June 2007
No news yet - and I am going to take that as good news!!
The doctor didn't call or come bye yesterday so I will say that makes me feel a little better!!
Hope to hear officially today and I will email or call then

A note from Brett on Saturday 7th July 2007
With the hand, I have a doctor's appointment the first day after the All Star Game break
which is 10th and 11th July
I might get a pain killing injection if I need it - but it does feel a lot better
I have been doing a small range of motion exercises and it's improving
So hopefully after five more days I may even get to start swinging!!
I want to be ready and then have six weeks to finish the season
That is my ideal situation

A note from Brett on Thursday 12th July 2007
There isn't any really bad news - more so just news - not good or bad
The first MRI I had two weeks ago was done incorrectly, so I found out today
What they did see on the first one was two bone bruises but no definitive answer on the ligaments
So I am now having what's called a three injection arthrogram
They put dye in three different areas to see if there are any leaks
Had the first one today and I then have two more Monday
Then an appointment after them on Monday with the hand specialist
Hope it's good news!
As for now, there is no chance of playing til at least the first on the month in my mind
And with our lineup how it is right now, I don't know if I will play when healthy anyway
Not what I wanted to hear, but there isn't much I can do right now
except push my good news date back to Monday and just hope!

Curve Game Day Show on Sunday 15th July 2007

The audio file opposite/below includes
two segments from the Game Day Show

PART ONE

Manager Tim Leiper discusses Brett's situation
He says he would like to see him back in the
lineup, and that he "feels bad for the guy"
He also mentions his great work as the
First Base Coach during the recent games

PART TWO
During the Curve Injury Report,
the commentator mentions that Brett is
an important part of the Curve lineup,
but there is no timetable for his return

NOTE - Tim Leiper speaks 'a little fast' and is a bit
difficult to understand - the rest of the tape,
including the Injury Report, is very clear

Windows Media Player required
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"PLAY"
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If the file does not play,
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Minimum of Version #9 is necessary, and it can be
downloaded for free by clicking here
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This audio file runs for 1 minute 40 seconds
and is 1169Kb
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and start to play within a few seconds

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

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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

-

Jason Delaney (pictured) homered to extend his team record RBI streak to 11 games
and his hit streak to 12 games, but the Curve endured a lopsided 7-2 loss to the Binghamton Mets
at Blair County Ballpark on Wednesday afternoon

Curve fall flat in finale and lose 7-2

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

Binghamton Mets take series

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

Leiper and his pitcher have words

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’’

Game Highlights Video

Time - 3 minutes 22 seconds

NOTE - Brett did not play - currently on the 'Disabled List'

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