DANGER: Hector Gimenez Imminent!

Strong pitching and power hitting won the day again last night, as the boys took down the Reading Phillies yet again, 5 to 2. Reading scored both their runs in the top of the 1st; Altoona scored all five of their runs in the bottom of the 6th. Six of the seven runs were scored via home runs.

Remember how Miles Durham robbed Dominic Brown of a sure home run Friday night? Brown was not about to let that happen again. He annihilated the first pitch he saw from Curve starter Rudy Owens, blasting a screaming liner a good 370-380 feet over the right field wall. Dwight Howard standing on Yao Ming's shoulders was not about to take that one away from him.

The bad news for Reading: Brown was the third batter of the game, and that would be all their scoring for the night.

An important measure of a pitcher's worth is how hard and how well he battles when he doesn't have his good stuff. Rudy Owens didn't have his good stuff last night, but after escaping a tough first inning--two singles, a walk, and Brown's bomb--Owens shut down the Phillies for the following five. Reading starter Drew Naylor matched him frame for frame though, and Owens left the game after six innings still trailing 2 to 0.

Then, in the bottom of the 6th, Chase d'Arnaud doubled. Matt Hague singled him in. 2 to 1. Then Naylor broke down and walked Jordy Mercer on four bad pitches. Naylor was replaced, as part of a three-position double switch, by reliever B.J. Rosenberg.

Hector Gimenez and Alex Presley took Rosenberg to school.

Gimenez took a ball. A foul. Ball two. Another foul. Another foul. Another foul.

Another foul.

BOOM!

Rosenberg finally put the ball where Gimenez was looking for it, and Gimenez jacked it out toward the roller coaster, a no doubt about it three run bomb that put the Curve in the lead, 4 to 2.

Presley took strike one, and then took two balls. Then a foul. Another foul. Ball three. Another foul.

BOOM!

Presley hit a searing line shot that cleared the right field wall by six inches, long before right fielder Dominic Brown could dream of getting there.

Rosenberg recovered after that, struck out the next three hitters, but the damage was done. And apparently Matt Walbeck has learned his lesson about putting Corey Hamman or Dustin Molleken into a close game; Tony Watson, with the aid of a helpfully hacktastic Reading lineup that made him throw only 30 pitches, pitched the last three innings to record the save.

YOU GUESSED IT - TIDBITS!

Very first batter of the game, Reading center/left fielder Mike Spidale hit a ball deep into the hole, leaving no prayer of getting him in time. Chase d'Arnaud fielded the ball--Spidale was about four steps from first base by this point--turned, and kind of nonchalantly launched the ball into the third row. Matt Hague just stared at it in disgust as it sailed 15, 20 feet over his head. d'Arnaud has been improving rapidly the past few weeks, but there's just no telling what he was thinking on that play. You have to get your head in the game, or you'll just be destined to wear a Royals uniform.

Jordy Mercer had a rough start to his night. He grounded into a double play on a 2-0 count--which is a cardinal sin unto death, just unacceptable--in the 2nd inning. Then in the 4th, Mercer lined into a double play, a freak accident, where he lined the ball right at Reading first baseman Brian Stavisky, leaving Jim Negrych hopeless and dead to rights. Stavisky stood flatfooted where he caught the ball and tagged Negrych out. Mercer bounced back from that to finish his night with a walk and a single.

The only Curve extra-base hit until the 6th inning was provided by Rudy Owens, who was credited with a double when Reading left fielder Kevin Mahar comically misplayed a semi-deep, lazy liner, cutting too sharp an angle on it and then watching it fly over his head. Ah, the fond memories of Jeremy Giambi that evoked.

I never noticed this before last night, for whatever reason, but Curve catcher/powerhouse Hector Giminez does not wear batting gloves. (At least, not when it's warm.) We can only pray he didn't attend the Moises Alou School of Skin Care. (Just Google it if you don't know, but trust me, you're better off not knowing.)