Bins helps Curve get victory
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By Jarrod Prugar
For the Mirror
A four-run eighth inning catapulted the Altoona Curve to a 4-0 win over the Richmond Flying Squirrels Friday night in front of 4,389 fans at PNG Field.
It was catcher Carter Bins who got the run parade started with a two-run home run that scored Chavez Young, who led off the inning with a walk.
Bins was injured just before spring training ended, and has spent the entirety of the season on the Injured List, making for his season debut in Double-A Friday night.
"I'm just extremely happy that he's healthy and he's getting a chance to be a part of this group," Altoona manager Callix Crabbe said. "He's going to help us a ton. He's going to play a ton."
Coming off an injury like Bins did is far from easy, and there's quite a bit of rust even with going on a rehab assignment at a lower level. Hitting the ball like he did is a good sign even with the lack of game repetitions.
"He just got to get his pitch in his zone and he didn't try to do too much and he got the ball in the air," Crabbe said.
Following the Bins home run, Claudio Finol was hit by a pitch and scored just two pitches later on Jackson Glenn's triple to put the Curve up 3-0.
Tsung-Che Cheng notched a single to plate Glenn and put Altoona ahead 4-0 before the Flying Squirrels retired the side.
It was another night of dominant pitching for the Curve as they blanked the Flying Squirrels for the third time in four games. In fact, shutouts on back-to-back nights haven't happened for Altoona since August of 2019.
Righty Braxton Ashcraft got it started by throwing three shutout innings allowing only two hits while striking out three.
Lefty Nick Dombkowski followed that up with two scoreless innings of his own notching a strikeout while not allowing any baserunners. Grant Ford took over in the sixth allowing only a single walk in his outing.
Oliver Garcia followed Ford allowing three hits, but managing to avoid disaster and shut the door on Richmond.
"Whenever there's been traffic on the bases and trouble seems to be lurking, they've done a really nice job, mitigating that and really working through it, executing pitches when they really needed to execute pitches," Crabbe said.
The streak
Tsung-Che Cheng's hitting streak moved to 11 games with his multi-hit performance Friday night.
It was the second multi-hit game in a row for Cheng who finished with a double and a single on the night.
On the move
Catcher Carter Bins was activated from the Injured List prior to Friday's game while catcher Abrahan Gutierrez was moved to the 60-IL.
Pitcher Tahnaj Thomas was placed on the Temporary Inactive List.
Next up
The Curve will send righty Aaron Shortridge to the mound on Saturday. Shortridge is 5-7 with a 5.34 ERA on the season for Altoona.
On Sunday, righty Beau Sulser gets the nod for the Curve. In his start Tuesday night, Sulser went five shutout innings while allowing only one hit.