Jul 28, 2025
Jase Bowen
Jase Bowen’s three-run home run paced the Altoona Curve offense in a 6-1 win over the Chesapeake Baysox at PNG Field Sunday afternoon in front of 3,712 fans.
His second-inning blast gave the Curve an early cushion, and it was exactly what the doctor had ordered given their struggles offensively this home stand.
“You get a three-run lead and then the pitcher can relax,” Altoona manager Andy Fox said. “You can start trying to add on, do some things, be a little more aggressive on the bases and situationally, so it’s definitely a nice feature.”
The offense continued its success after Saturday night’s Mike Jarvis grand slam propelled the Curve to victory.
“It’s huge,” Fox said. “We dropped the first two out of three. And then being able to win three out of the last four is big. Anytime you can get the lead, and we can kind of do some damage control and the bullpen pitched really well and gave us a chance.”
Altoona dialed up some small ball and took advantage of key mistakes by Chesapeake in the fifth inning.
Nick Cimillo doubled to start the inning with Esmerlyn Valdez drawing a walk in the next at bat. Sammy Siani dropped a bunt to pitcher Trace Bright, which Bright threw past first baseman Anthony Servideo. The error scored Cimillo and moved Valdez and Siani to third and second, respectively.
Valdez scored on a sacrifice fly by Brenden Dixon, and Siani scored on a single by Aaron McKeithan to give the Curve a 6-0 cushion through five.
“We saw it the other night with us. They took advantage of the mistakes we made,” Fox said. “I think the last two games hitting, our ability to hit with runners in scoring position and today the mistakes they made. We were able to have some traffic and get knocks and things we need to get guys home.”
Getting consistent production out of the offense had been a struggle against the Baysox throughout the series, but back-to-back nights where they put up runs when they needed to is something Fox has been looking forward to.
“We’ve done a much better job putting the ball in play, and that’s going to help when you have guys in scoring position which you know you’ve seen the last two nights,” Fox said.
The Curve have maintained their lead atop the Eastern League standings with a 16-11 record in the second half of the season.
Pitching staff shoves
The Curve pitching staff had a stellar day against Chesapeake.
Po-Yu Chen hurled three shutout innings, struck out three and walked two. He allowed two hits before Fox turned to Jaden Woods in the fourth.
Woods threw the fourth before rain delayed the game 45 minutes and ended his day. Blake Townsend came on for the fifth and sixth and didn’t allow a hit or run.
In the seventh and eighth, Ryan Harbin gave up one run on four hits and four strikeouts as Wilkin Ramos slammed the door on the Baysox in the ninth.
“They’ve been big,” Fox said. “The bullpen has probably been our biggets, our strongest point to date this season for us.”
Johnson absent
Termarr Johnson has been battling a stomach bug this week which explains his absence from the lineup the past few games.
Fox expects to have Johnson back at full strength against Portland this week.
Movin’ up
Following Sunday’s game, Curve reliever Beau Burrows was promoted to Triple-A Indianapolis.
Burrows was a 2015 first-round pick of the Detroit Tigers. He started the 2025 campaign in the Mexican League before the Pirates signed him.
In Altoona, Burrows appeared in 15 games and had an 0.44 ERA, which includes 21 strikeouts.
Slammin’ Saturday
Jarvis’ grand slam in the bottom of the seventh inning Saturday helped put the Baysox away for good.
The Curve held a 2-1 going into the inning before three straight hits loaded the bases to set the stage for Jarvis’ heroics.
The game ended after the top of the eighth inning due to inclement weather with Altoona up 6-1.
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