After a 5-win week in Asheville, the Burgers returned to Fifth Third Park Tuesday night for the first of six with the Rome Emperors, who entered the week a half game ahead of Hub City in the South Atlantic League South Division standings.
Aidan Curry (1-1, 4.32 ERA) would face Rome right hander Colin Daniel (2-2, 5.34) on a night in which the Spartanburgers not only looked to pick up ground in the standings, but also honored recently-promoted fan favorite Arturo Disla.
The game would be a pitchers’ duel with both starters effectively doing the opposite of each other. Curry dealt with a lot of traffic on the base paths, but was racking up strikeouts.
In the first inning, shortstop John Gil singled. But two strikeouts and a fly ball left him on. In the 2nd, Rome mounted their biggest threat, loading the bases on a leadoff single from second baseman Cody Miller, a 1 out fielding error charged to Carter Garate, and a hit by pitch to third baseman Colby Jones. Curry got out of it by striking out the next two.
On the other end, Daniel pitched to contact effectively. His first 4 outs of the game all came on ground balls. He allowed just 4 base runners through the first 5 innings. Of those, all were left on and three were stranded in scoring position. Daniel struck out just 5 over that stretch.
Curry would depart after 6 complete, striking out nine with 3 walks as well as three hits. Of note, one thing that helped him escape traffic on the base paths was Malcolm Moore’s arm — who gunned out three would-be base stealers, two of which were for the third out.
Moore’s bat also helped Curry’s case, as he broke the shutout with 1 out in the bottom of the 6th on a solo shot off Daniel that was sent out of the deepest part of the yard — his 5th homer in the last five games, extending his hit streak to 10 games.
After Cole Stasio worked around a 1 out single from Jones via Moore gunning him out at 2nd, Hub City added on in the bottom of the 7th. Quincy Scott led off the inning with a base hit and Antonis Macias followed by reaching on a fielding error charged to the third baseman. After Garate bunted them into scoring position, Yeison Morrobel clutched up with a 2 run knock to extend the lead to 3-0 heading to the 8th.
Stasio worked around a one out base on balls to Gil by sandwiching it around a pair of strikeouts and a mile high pop up to 2nd and in the bottom of the eighth, the Burgers added on once again.
After a leadoff double from Moore — giving him 8 multi-hit games in the streak, and a single from Kling, Gleider Figuereo grounded to 2nd, plating Moore. Quincy Scott was then beaned, and after Macias whiffed, Garate picked up his first professional home run, sending a three run shot into the bullpen to make it 7-0 heading to the 9th.
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