Harrington controls Baysox as Curve get another win
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By Jarrod Prugar
For the Mirror
Thomas Harrington tossed seven strong innings en route to a 5-1 win over the Bowie Baysox at PNG Field Wednesday night in front of 3,390 fans.
Harrington dazzled all who were in attendance, including his family and a friend, current Pirates pitcher Jared Jones.
"Jared and I are really good friends," Harrington said. "I was actually talking to him last night and he said he didn't have anything to do so he might ride out tonight and check me out. So yeah, it was always good to see him catch up."
While performing in front of a close friend in Jones is always fun, being able to do so in front of family made Wednesday's game that much better for Harrington.
"This is the first time they've been up and I don't know if they'll get to come up again, but it's always nice to have them in town," Harrington said. "The best part about it is performing well in front of them. I feel like they came up here and I was able to kind of execute my pitches today and it was awesome."
Harrington's performance certainly didn't disappoint as he struck out a season-high 11 and allowed only one run. It's the type of performance that's come to be expected of the young righty.
"I'm seeing a lot of the same things I saw last year, a guy who was in control, has quality pitches and he's able to move and maneuver them around," Curve manager Robby Hammock said. "He's able to throw any pitch in any count and he knows how to pitch and I saw a lot of it last year. It's transferring here as well."
Since coming off the Injured List on May 12, Harrington is 2-2 with a 2.54 ERA. He has notched 62 strikeouts in 59ª innings of work while walking only eight.
Those strikeouts were out in full force Wednesday night much to the delight of Hammock and his squad.
"I wouldn't take him for a big strikeout guy like that, but that was good to see because I know he's been working on different things with his pitch shape and stuff like that," Hammock said. "He was sneaky with his fastball at night. Just kept them back and forth. When he had to, he was able to sneak that fastball by or pull the string on the changeup and throw the slider in good spots. When you're able to mix like that, throw the pitches we want to in certain spots, it makes it tough for anybody."
The lone blemish for Harrington was a run that came across in the top of the eighth after he had been taken out for reliever Emmanuel Chapman.
Sharp shooters
Harrington's start now makes it eight of the last 17 games where a Curve starter has thrown a quality start. Six of those have lasted seven innings or longer.
"The prep work they do in between starts, the game planning they're on board with and they understand it and they're able to execute," Hammock said. "They're high IQ guys with good stuff and that's a deadly combo."
Those starters have helped contribute in large part to the six-game winning streak Altoona is currently on.
Streaking
With his single in the third inning, Yoyner Fajardo extended his on-base streak to 22 games. He has reached base in 22 of 28 games since joining the Curve on June 6th.
In play
The Curve offense collected three of its seven hits in the home half of the seventh inning. Those hits, plus Jase Bowen reaching on an error, all led to runs for Altoona.
Catcher Abrahan Gutierrez doubled home Tsung-Che Cheng who walked to start the inning. Bowen reached with two outs and plated Gutierrez before Brenden Dixon singled home Bowen five pitches later to give the Curve a 4-0 lead.
Kervin Pichardo hit a ground-rule double to move Dixon to third where he scored on a wild pitch to push the lead to 5-0.
Being able to jump on those opportunities to score is a big reason why the Altoona offense has had continued success of late.
"We can't miss them. Offensively, we're a little slow to start out so when those opportunities do arise, we have to be able to jump on them and we were able to tonight," Hammock said.
Next up
The Curve will send RHP Po-Yu Chen to the mound tonight to face Bowie.