EL honors Curve players

For only the third time in franchise history, the Curve swept the Eastern League's weekly awards Monday.

Outfielder Adalberto Santos was named EL player of the week, while right-hander Phil Irwin was selected pitcher of the week.

Santos hit .500 (12-for-24) for the week in seven games with two homers, seven RBIs, five runs, two triples, a double and five runs. He finished off his monster week with a walk-off single in the 10th inning of the Curve's 3-2 win over New Hampshire on Sunday.

Santos is having a huge season so far, hitting .406 in 34 games. He was hitting .396 his first 17 games before suffering a knee injury and missing two months. He's been even better in 17 games since his return, hitting .415.

"It feels great just to come back and be with the team so far, for the month I've been back," he said. "When I was down for two months, it was kind of hard, frustrating. And just to come back and help the team like I have been, and keep on going, keep on winning games, and going on the road, it's been great just to be back with my teammates and friends."

Irwin has been on a terrific run his past three starts with three complete games (one was eight innings, the other two were seven). He made one start last week to win the EL award, pitching seven shutout innings and allowing just two hits with nine strikeouts and no walks Friday against New Hampshire.

Irwin missed the first two months of the season with a shoulder injury and got off to a slow start before surging recently. He's 3-7 with a 3.16 ERA in 15 games (14 starts).

"[He's been] aggressive with his mix of pitches," Curve manager P.J. Forbes said. "[He has] confidence in all three pitches, and his curveball command is like three different pitches."

The only other times in Curve history that they swept the EL weekly awards were: June 14-20, 2004 (Yurendell DeCaster and Landon Jacobsen) and Aug. 5-11, 2002 (Kevin Sefcik and John Grabow).