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It was the right arm of Thomas Harrington who helped pave the way for the Altoona Curve in a 1-0 win over the Harrisburg Senators in front of 8,905 fans at PNG Field Thursday night.
Harrington wrote off Harrisburg to the tune of only allowing three hits in seven shutout innings of work. The righty also finished with six strikeouts.
"I really didn't have command or control today so I was just trying to pick a spot on the catcher and throw it through him and let the results be the results," Harrington said.
Harrington being able to work through the control issues and still post the results he did is not something that's easy for a Double-A pitcher.
"It was encouraging because he didn't have his best command," Altoona manager Robby Hammock said. "You could tell he was off and things weren't lining up. He wasn't as sharp as he normally is and was still able to pitch out of jams and give us seven strong innings. It was impressive."
It was all the Curve needed in what turned out to be an old-fashioned pitcher's duel between Harrington and Harrisburg's Andry Lara. Lara threw six innings and allowed one run on six hits.
"It's good because those types of wins have been rare for us and when we can pick one up, it's always a positive," Hammock said.
The Altoona offense managed to get a run courtesy of left fielder Sammy Siani's two-out RBI single that plated first baseman Joe Perez for the lone run of the game.
It marked the third win of the second half of the season for the Curve who are desperately looking to improve on a less than stellar start to the season.
"It was nice to get this one here for the sold out crowd here on Fourth of July," Hammock said. "It was a nail biter the whole way. It was a fun, fun game. It was a good, different type of win and it was good to show that we are able to get wins in those circumstances as well."
Quick save
Reliever Chris Gau entered in the ninth inning as Altoona clung to a one-run lead with runners on first and second and only one out.
All it took was two pitches for the Curve to get out of the inning as he induced a ground ball for a double play to end the game.
Gau relieved Luis Peralta who struck out two in the eighth inning before allowing a lead-off single and a walk in the ninth before making way for Gau.
Seeing double
Altoona second baseman Tsung-Che Cheng was the lone Curve hitter to record multiple hits as he recorded two of the team's five hits.
Both hits were doubles and put him at 13 for the season.
Letting loose
Almost immediately following Thursday night's game, Mother Nature let loose with some rain and it provided an opportunity for players and fans to let loose.
Players could be seen doing tarp slides and enjoying the fireworks following the victory, including Harrington.
"It was a lot of fun," Harrington said. "The guys kind of talked me into it. I wasn't going to do it at first and then they talked me into it. We don't get to do tarp slides a lot so we let it rip."
Next up
The Curve will send RHP Po-Yu Chen to the mound Friday night against Harrisburg. Chen is 2-7 with a 4.38 ERA for Altoona this season.
Against Akron in his last outing, Chen went seven innings and allowed three runs on five hits.