Altoona’s first lead arrived with one emphatic swing. Its undoing took three pitchers, two inherited runners and a fifth inning that rain ultimately made decisive.
Aaron Walton’s two-run single completed Akron’s three-run reversal in the fifth, and the RubberDucks held off the Curve for a 3-2 victory Saturday at Peoples Natural Gas Field. Rain ended the game after six innings, leaving Altoona without another chance to answer.
The Curve had broken through an inning earlier against Ryan Degges, who retired the first nine batters he faced. Keiner Delgado ended that run with a line-drive single to right, and Jesus Castillo’s sacrifice bunt moved him to third.
Murf Gray took care of the rest. He lifted a drive high and deep toward left-center field, beyond Walton’s retreat and over the wall for a two-run homer. Gray’s ninth Double-A home run supplied all of Altoona’s scoring and briefly gave the Curve control of a game in which offense had been scarce.
That advantage became fragile almost immediately.
Yonleg Gaetano opened the fifth by issuing consecutive walks to Alex Mooney and Christian Knapczyk. Aaron Shortridge entered and got Kevin Rivas to ground out, moving both runners, but an injury forced him from the game after recording only that out.
Jarod Bayless inherited runners at second and third with one away. Jaison Chourio made him work through an eight-pitch at-bat, narrowly pulling a foul ball past the third-base bag before lining a single that dropped in front of center fielder Will Taylor. Mooney scored, Knapczyk stopped at third and Altoona’s lead was down to one.
Bayless struck out Jace LaViolette on a foul tip and moved within an out of preserving the lead. Walton would not let him escape.
Walton lined a fastball into right-center, where it fell before Taylor could close the distance. Knapczyk scored from third, Chourio followed from first and Akron had turned a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead.
The pitching line reflected how the inning unraveled across multiple arms. Gaetano was charged with two earned runs after allowing four walks over four innings. Shortridge was not charged with a run, while Bayless took the loss and blown save after surrendering Walton’s deciding hit. He allowed one earned run and struck out two over 1 2/3 innings.
Altoona still put the tying run within reach in each of its final two turns at bat.
Ryan McCarty and Matt King drew walks against Degges in the fifth, but Delgado lined out sharply to Chourio in center. Degges finished five innings with four strikeouts and two walks, earning the win despite Gray’s home run.
Castillo gave the Curve an even better opening in the sixth. Swinging at Dylan DeLucia’s first pitch, he drove a sharp fly toward the left-center-field warning track. The ball bounced near the base of the wall, and Castillo coasted into second with his fifth double.
He advanced to third on Callan Moss’ groundout, but DeLucia stranded him there. Gray lined out to center, and Alex Mooney snagged Titus Dumitru’s sharp liner at shortstop to end the inning. DeLucia earned his first save, and the rain prevented Altoona from getting a seventh.
The Curve finished with three hits, all concentrated in their best two scoring opportunities: Delgado’s single and Gray’s homer in the fourth, then Castillo’s double in the sixth. Their one clean burst produced a lead. Akron’s messier fifth took it away—and, once the weather closed in, made sure it stayed gone.