Brad Eldred smacked his second grand slam in eight days and Bryan Bullington battled through six innings Monday as the Altoona Curve downed the Erie SeaWolves, 9-5 before 6,952 at Uht Park.
Altoona (77-50) reduced its magic number to clinch a playoff spot down to two with the victory. Second-place Erie (70-56) fell 6 1/2 games behind the Curve in the Eastern League\’s Southern Division. Altoona\’s magic number to lock up the division title is 10.
With the Curve trailing 1-0 in the third, Eldred smashed a 1-2 pitch from SeaWolves\’ right-hander Joel Zumaya (2-1) on to the roof of the Erie Civic Center for a grand slam. The blast was Eldred\’s 12th with the Curve (all in the last 17 games) and 33rd of the season between Class-A Lynchburg and Altoona.
“Big Country” now has 42 RBI in his 25 games with Altoona and a season total of 119 RBI in 115 contests between the two clubs.
Erie fought back to tie the game with two in third and one in the fourth. Scott Tousa roped an RBI triple and scored on Curtis Granderson\’s single in the third. In the next inning, Derek Nicholson lined a game-tying home run to right.
Bullington (11-7) tossed two scoreless innings after that and got credit for the win when the Curve took the lead back in the sixth. With two out in that frame, Scott Sheldon walked and scored on a double to the right field corner by Shaun Skrehot.
Bullington allowed four runs on eight hits over six innings in winning his fourth straight start. The right-hander walked two and struck out seven.
Zumaya, a 19-year old in his third Double-A start, yielded five runs and five hits over his six innings to take the loss. The Tigers\’ number-three prospect walked three and fanned eight, brandishing a fastball that touched 97 miles per hour.
The Curve scored one in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Tom Evans and three in the eighth on an RBI single by Sheldon and two-run base hit by Chris Snusz.
Brady Borner allowed one run and two hits over his two innings of relief. Jeff Miller slammed the door on the SeaWolves with two strikeouts in a perfect ninth inning.
Game two of the series in Erie is Tuesday at 7:05 p.m. In a duel of right-handers, the Curve will go with Ian Snell (10-7, 3.26) while the SeaWolves counter with Kyle Sleeth (3-4, 7.08).
