Stephan struggles before rally falls short

TRENTON » Trevor Stephan may have pitched himself out of the Thunder rotation.

The right-hander endured another frustrating Double-A outing after he was hooked in the fourth inning and ultimately charged with seven runs in a 9-7 loss to Altoona at Arm & Hammer Park on Thursday night.

Stephan has now failed to get through six innings in any of his 12 starts with the Thunder. He hasn’t won since June 19 and watched his ERA balloon to a ghastly 5.49.

It didn’t start badly as Stephan began with two scoreless frames and was staked to a 1-0 lead thanks to Trey Amburgey’s RBI double.

It unraveled in the third when a 2-1 advantage evaporated on Logan Hill’s two-run homer, which came on a down-the-middle 3-2 fastball. Ke’Bryan Hayes doubled home another run before the inning ended with Cole Tucker getting thrown out at the plate.

The wheels totally came off in the fourth after a pair of singles and a walk loaded the bases, which was enough for manger Jay Bell, who yanked Stephan in favor of left-hander Phillp Diehl.

Diehl proceeded to uncork a wild pitch, allowing the first of four runs to score in the inning. Hill again delivered the body blow with a two-run double to left-center.

Before the inning was over Thunder pitching coach Tim Norton was ejected by home plate umpire Aaron Higgins. It was the second ejection in the series — Altoona’s Scooter Hightower was tossed in the opener after he threw at Wendell Rijo after time was called.

The Thunder now own three of the seven total ejections in the Eastern League. Bell was tossed on April 22 and Jorge Saez got run earlier this month.

The rotation should get a jolt in the arm with Michael King expected to return from Triple-A Scranton after the Yankees optioned Chance Adams back to the minors.

King is 6-2 with a 2.09 ERA, 0.95 WHIP and 76 strikeouts in 82 innings at Double-A.

The Thunder are also expecting Yankees No. 5 Domingo Acevedo to return at some point. Acevedo (upper arm soreness) began throwing earlier this week.

Trenton scored five runs in the ninth after Altoona’s Sean Keselica, a Summit native, walked five of the seven batters he faced. Rashad Crawford then lined a twoout, two-run single to right off Matt Eckelman that cut the deficit to 9-7 and brought the winning run to the plate, but Rijo popped up to short to end the game.