Brandon Butterworth put together the best offensive game of his young professional career Thursday night, but it wasn’t enough to prevent the Chesapeake Baysox from falling 14-10 to the Altoona Curve after climbing back from a seven-run deficit.
Butterworth finished with three extra-base hits and a career-high five RBI for Chesapeake (17-12, 46-51), capped by a three-run home run in the top of the eighth inning that pulled the Baysox within one run, 11-10, after trailing 9-2 earlier in the game. The comeback bid ultimately came up short as Altoona answered with a three-run eighth of its own, aided by one of seven combined errors between the two teams.
The deficit traced back to a disastrous second inning for Chesapeake left-hander Sebastian Gongora. After Altoona’s Lonnie White Jr. opened the game with a solo homer in the first, the Curve sent 11 batters to the plate in the second and scored eight runs on five hits, aided by a throwing error that helped load the bases with no one out. A hit by pitch reloaded the bases with two outs before RBI singles from Jesus Castillo and Carmichael brought home four runs, and a three-run homer from Titus Dimitru ended Gongora’s night after just an inning and two-thirds. Because of the earlier error, only one of the runs charged to Gongora (L, 8-6) was earned.
Chesapeake chipped away from there. Victor Figueroa’s RBI triple and a Willy Vasquez sacrifice fly produced two runs in the top of the second, and Butterworth began his big night with an RBI double in the third, later scoring on a Frederick Bencosme groundout. He doubled home another run in the fifth off Altoona right-hander Peyton Stumbo (W, 2-9), who worked six innings for the Curve. Altoona pushed the lead back to 11-5 with a pair of solo homers in the bottom of the fifth, a margin that held until Chesapeake’s eighth-inning rally began with a bases-loaded walk drawn by Doug Hodo and an Aron Estrada fielder’s choice, setting the stage for Butterworth’s go-ahead-attempt homer two batters later.
Thursday extended a torrid stretch for Butterworth, who has hits in 13 of his last 14 games and is batting .375 (21-for-56) with 14 RBI over that span. The 23-year-old infielder, a 12th-round pick by the San Diego Padres in the 2024 draft out of North Carolina State before joining the Orioles organization, has emerged as one of Chesapeake’s most productive hitters during the season’s second half.
Griff O’Ferrall also had a strong night, doubling and singling for his fourth straight multi-hit game and extending his overall hitting streak to seven games, while Anderson De Los Santos singled in the first inning to push his on-base streak to 16 straight games.
The loss ended a stretch in which Chesapeake had won its first two games of the series in blowout fashion, including Wednesday’s near-no-hitter from Double-A debutant Caden Hunter and Tuesday’s 12-3 rout behind Aron Estrada’s grand slam. Chesapeake looks to bounce back Friday night as the six-game series in Altoona continues. Left-hander Joseph Dzierwa (2-1, 2.48 ERA) is scheduled to start for the Baysox against Curve right-hander Matt Ager (4-2, 5.04 ERA), with first pitch set for 6 p.m. at Peoples Natural Gas Field.
The Baysox will finish out their road trip before returning to Prince George’s Stadium in Bowie on Tuesday, Aug. 4, to open a seven-game homestand against the Harrisburg Senators, the Double-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals. First pitch for that series opener is scheduled for 6:35 p.m.
Thursday’s split series continues a stretch of high-scoring, back-and-forth baseball between the two clubs, whose three games this week have combined for 47 total runs and a heavy dose of extra-base hits from both lineups. Despite the loss, Chesapeake enters Friday’s contest still holding a series lead, with the Baysox looking to close out the road trip on a positive note before a stretch of home games against Harrisburg that will carry the club into August.
