Pichardo delivers big hit in 10th in home opener
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By Jarrod Prugar
For the Mirror
The Altoona Curve kicked off the home slate of the 2024 season with a 10th-inning walk-off single by Kervin Pichardo for an 8-7 win over the Harrisburg Senators in front of 5,213 fans at PNG Field Tuesday night.
"It was great having people cheer for us tonight," Altoona manager Robbie Hammock said.
Seth Beer started the home half of the 10th inning at second base before advancing to second on a sacrifice bunt by Dylan Shockley. Tres Gonzalez would ground out sharply for the second out of the inning to set the stage for Pichardo's heroics.
Pichardo roped a 2-1 pitch from Harrisburg's Samuel Reyes into left field to plate Beer and send the home faithful home with the win.
To get that opportunity, it was a battle from the Curve bullpen to help limit a potent Senators lineup that saw them plate seven runs in the first three innings after falling behind 2-0 after the first inning of play.
Enter Aaron Shackleford to help claw Altoona back into the game.
Shackleford crushed a three-run home run inside the foul pole in right field to get the Curve back within two runs before hitting a colossal blast in the seventh inning to tie the game.
Prior to tonight, Shackleford last homered on July 28, 2023 making for eight months of frustration gone with two beautiful swings of the bat.
"It's just been a weird eight months of baseball," Shackleford said. "It starts to weigh on you a little bit. I'm just so thankful for tonight."
The culmination of work in the cage and finding his swing came together in a big way and helped get Altoona in a position for extra innings.
"That was super fun. That was the most fun I've had playing in a long time," Shackleford said.
Built Ford tough
Hammock turned to Grant Ford to stop the bleeding in the fourth inning and that he did.
Ford hurled 2.1 shutout innings, thwarting an offensive attack from Harrisburg that featured three home runs in four innings. The righty held the Senators off the scoreboard and allowed only one hit while striking out three.
Case closed
Brad Case began the evening stumbling out of the dugout as he was announced during pregame introductions.
He finished his night by going three shutout innings, striking out three while walking only one and allowing only two hits.
"The job when you're sitting in the bullpen is you just wait until your time is called and then you go out there and get as many outs as you can until your manager pulls you from the game," Case said.
It's an outing Case desperately needed to start the season in front of the home faithful.
"This is my fourth year in Altoona and my first opening day I've been on the roster for," Curve reliever Brad Case said. "I'm really happy we got to win it the way we did."
Crews control
Harrisburg's Dylan Crews was the second overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft and his performance on Tuesday night showed exactly why the Washington Nationals made that decision.
Crews was 4-for-5 with a home run and four RBI against Altoona. His home run was the first Double A home run of his young career.
Next up
Altoona sends RHP Po-Yu Chen to the mound for his first start of the young season tonight. Chen was 5-8 with a 4.44 ERA in Greensboro last year.