The Altoona Curve broke a couple of bad streaks in Thursday morning’s Kid’s Special.
The game which started at 10:35 a.m. and featured 7,414 fans, most of them school children, actually was well into the afternoon before Ray Navarrete ripped a bases-loaded single between third and short to give Altoona the 5-4 win.
Most of the young fans had already boarded the 85 buses that carried them to Blair County Ballpark from their individual schools by the time the Curve ended a string of seven straight loses to the Akron Aeros at BCB.
Veteran Shawn Skrehot opened the bottom of the 13th inning with a single to right. After Jose Castillo popped out, Chan Perry lined a double into the left field corner to put runners at second and third. Akron chose to intentionally walk Josh Bonifay, who was hitting just .131 at Blair County Ballpark at game time. Bonifay already had a pair of singles and a double in this contest however, so the Aeros chose to walk the Curve left fielder to set up a possible force at every base and pitch to Ray Navarrete, who was 0-for-5 for the day.
With both infielders and outfielders drawn in where they could make a play at home to stop the potential game-winning run, Navarrete ripped a single to left to score Skrehot with the winning run.
“I was looking for something up, something I could hit hard,” said Navarrete, “something I could get through the infield. The count was my favorite, two balls and no strikes. I said to myself, ‘if he throws anything in the strike zone, all I have to do is hit the ball hard. I was lucky enough to get a pitch about belt-high and I was able to find a hole.”
The Altoona pitching once again held the opponent in check, particularly the bullpen.
Curve starter Ben Shaffar left after five innings with the game tied 4-4. Shaffar, who was expected to be the Curve ace, has had some problems winning with a 1-3 mark and a 4.12 ERA, but pitched well, actually throwing just one bad pitch. That one was a three-run homer in the third inning by Grady Sizemore, who seems to be making a career of bashing Curve pitching.
Akron scored four times in all in the top of the third and then Shaffar and the Curve pen shut out the Aeros over the next 10 innings. Unfortunately, until the 13th, the Altoona bats were just as silent.
“Our pitchers have been unbelievable all year, especially at home,” said Navarrete. “But we have been having a tough time scoring runs. We have to tip our hats to them. They have kept us in a lot of games. Today we were down 4-1 and it looked like a tough day, but we fought back and the pitchers kept them at bay and we were able to walk away with a win.”
Altoona had won just three games at home in their last 17 prior to Thursday’s game, prompting Curve manager Dale Sveum to call a position players meeting at 8:30 a.m. before the 10:30 start.
“It turned out to be a good thing,” said Navarrete. “It turned out to be like a rap session. The players and coaches talked about things like our approach to hitting and how we felt hitting at home as opposed to hitting away. We talked about the feelings, the emotions and frustrations we have had lately. A lot of the guys talked to each other and to Swamer (Sveum). It turned out to be a good day for us.”
Altoona scored once in the second on a single by Bonifay and a sacrifice fly by Joe Caruso.
In the fourth, the Curve tied the game with the help of three Akron errors. Caruso started the uprising with a bunt single and the big blow was a two-run double by designated hitter Kevin Nicholson.
John Grabow relieved Shaffar, tossing three innings of scoreless baseball striking out three and walking one. Grabow allowed two hits, both doubles, one to Akron catcher Brian Luderer to begin the seventh and one to Sizemore leading off the eighth. In both cases, Grabow was able to pitch out of trouble and strand runners at third base in both innings. Mike Johnston pitched three scoreless frames, adding to his scoreless to bring it to 18 and 1/3 consecutive innings without giving up a run. Todd Ozias (2-1) pitched the 12th and 13th without allowing a hit to pick up the win.
“We had some mess-ups here and there and used our bullpen, but we battled and it was nice to pull that out,” said Sveum. “ It was huge for us to get a win like that at home. Skrehot battled all day and had some good at bats. Chan Perry has been struggling a little bit the last few days. It was nice to see him come up with a big double like that. Navarrete just had to look for a good pitch to drive through the hole and he got it. We had a lot better attitude today. We still had some first-pitch swinging, but we battled.
“You can’t say enough about our relief pitching. There’s no telling where we would be without our relief pitching, our pitching period. They have been phenomenal. Shaffar didn’t have too much today, but at least battled. Basically he gave up one pitch that was the difference in his day. Grabow was tremendous again. All of them are. It’s just nice to be able go to all those guys and have that many bullets in your gun every day to shut teams out.”
Curve right fielder Joe Caruso and Akron left fielder Alex Requena provided the play of the day. In the ninth inning, Caruso blasted what looked like a walkoff home run that would have given Altoona the win. Requena went back to the left field wall, leaped high and pulled the ball back into his glove, robbing Caruso of a four-bagger and continuing the game until Navarrete’s base hit in the 13th.
