Fordham, Curve Get Back on Track with Win over Rock Cats
Published on July 28, 2003 under Eastern League (EL1)
Altoona Curve News Release
(ALTOONA, PA)- Curve starter Tom Fordham tossed 7 1/3 shutout innings and Shawn Garrett and Jose Castillo each delivered RBI singles as the Altoona Curve shutout the visiting New Britain Rock Cats 2-0 on Monday night at Blair County Ballpark.
Altoona (60-46), which had lost seven of eight games entering the contest, moved to within five games of first place Akron in the Eastern League's Southern Division, but remained 7 1/2 games up on third-place Bowie, which beat Akron 7-5 Monday night.
New Britain (51-54), meanwhile, had its five-game winning streak snapped thanks to an outstanding pitching performance by Fordham.
The 29-year old left-hander, who spent parts of two seasons in the major leagues with the Chicago White Sox, recovered nicely from back-to-back outings in which he yielded a combined 13 earned runs on 17 hits in 7 2/3 innings, to blank the Rock Cats on just six hits in his 7 1/3 frames Monday night. In throwing an economical 88 pitches, Fordham (4-1) walked none and struck out seven to notch his fourth win in a Curve uniform since being sent down from Triple-A Nashville on June 2nd.
Todd Ozias retired all five batters he faced in the eighth and ninth innings to record his 17th save of the season--just three shy of equaling the club record set by Chris Spurling last season.
Rock Cats' starter J.D. Durbin (3-3) took a hard-luck loss, earning a complete game after going eight innings and allowing just a pair of unearned runs on six hits. The right-hander, who is one of the Minnesota Twins' top prospects, consistently featured a mid-90s fastball throughout the night and hit 97 m.p.h. on his 102nd and final pitch of the game.
Both of the Curve's runs came across in the bottom of the fifth thanks to back-to-back run-scoring singles by Garrett and Castillo. A one-out throwing error by New Britain second baseman Ryan Owens led to both tallies being unearned in the frame.
Kevin Nicholson went 3-for-4 and scored a run to pace the Curve offense. Newcomer Chris Shelton, playing in his first career Double-A game after being called up from Single-A Lynchburg earlier in the day, was hitless in three at-bats. Shelton left Lynchburg with a .358 average, 21 home runs and 69 RBI in 94 games.
Terry Tiffee went 3-for-4 to lead the Rock Cats' offense.
The three-game series will continue Tuesday night at 7:05 p.m. as the Curve will send right-hander John VanBenschoten (5-1, 2.77) to the mound to oppose New Britain righty Jim Abbott (3-2, 2.27).
POST-GAME NOTES: Shaun Skrehot failed to collect a hit, thus remaining tied with Rico Washington for the most hits in Curve history (298)... Brett Roneberg went 0-for-3 to extend his hitless at-bats streak to 24... After his 3-for-4 performance, Nicholson is now hitting .348 (32-for-92) in July... Twins' top prospect Joe Mauer, the top pick in the 2001 draft, went 0-for-4 in his first game against the Curve... Tuesday night the Curve will present "Bark in the Park Night" at Blair County Ballpark. Fans will be allowed to bring their dogs to the ballpark, while Skyy Dogg & Rockin' Ray will provide the in-game entertainment
Eastern League Stories from July 28, 2003
- Fordham, Curve Get Back on Track with Win over Rock Cats - Altoona Curve
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