John Grabow (7-10) continued his turnaround on Tuesday with another solid performance on the mound. For Altoona Curve manager Dale Sveum and the team, it can’t happen at a better time.
After spending last season and the first half of 2002 wondering what was happening to his previously fine control, especially command of his fastball, Grabow was beginning to run short of options.
After a solid 8-7 campaign at Altoona in 200, with an ERA of 4.33 with 109 strikeouts and 65 walks in 145 plus innings, Grabow went a combined 3-9 at Altoona, Lynchburg and Bradenton last year with a 5.19 ERA, and 69 walks and 40 Ks in 69 and 1/3 innings pitched. During his first dozen starts of the 2002 baseball season, Grabow was 1-7 with 40 strikeouts and 24 walks in 58 and 1/2 innings. His ERA was a robust 7.41.
Since a complete-game nine-inning start against Erie back on June 13, however, the 6-foot-2, 190 pound righty has indeed turned the corner. With Tuesday night’s performance, Grabow has been 6-3 since June 13 with 40 strikeouts and just 13 walks and a 4.33 ERA 60 and 1/3 innings and has fanned 20 in his last three starts with one walk..
“I’m starting to feel like I used to feel, when I had command of the zone,” said Grabow. “I’m just trying to get the fastball down in the zone and not walk anybody. Our starting pitching has been alright, but now it is beginning to pitch really well now. The bullpen has done just great all season. We have never had a point where the bullpen has been bad. Now that our starting rotation is beginning to click in the last month, that really helps out a lot. It takes some of the pressure off the bullpen so they can come in fresh.”
Pitching without issuing a walk for the second straight game, Grabow tossed seven innings to get the win, allowing two runs on nine hits, while fanning seven batters.
“His changeup has gotten better,” said Curve Manager Sveum about his pitcher, “but I think more than anything, his command of his fastball has gotten better. John is getting the ball in and staying ahead in the count, using his changeup good. He had real good arm action on his changeup tonight and had a pretty decent breaking ball too, especially early in the game. Later, he went more to the changeup. He has really picked the rest of the staff up. He and Vogelsong have back-to-back good starts against a team that was swinging the bat pretty good coming into this series.
We are going to be getting Mike Gonzalez back soon. He threw a six-inning no-hitter with a ton of strikeouts in the Gulf Coast League and averaged 90 miles an hour. It will be nice to have Vogelsong and Grabow and Gonzalez along with Justin Reid and Burnside and O’Connor down the stretch.”
Erie scored first on a single by Corey Richardson and double by Cody Ross in the top of the first.
Altoona quickly tied the game in the bottom of the first when Kevin Sefcik bombed a home run over the RUS billboard sign in deep left center, about 395 feet from home plate.
“I didn’t know that one was going out when I hit it,” said Sefcik. “ I had to look at the umpire. I heard the applause from the crowd and I sort of thought it bounced over. Usually when I hit them, I just kind of run. I’ll take it, especially when we were down 1-0. I don’t get those very often, so I cherish then when I hit one.”
The Curve took the lea for good in the second, Shawn Garrett singled to center to start the frame and moved to second on a one-out basehit by Rico Washington. John Pachot scored Garrett with a sacrifice fly.
Altoona the added a couple of tallies in the fourth inning. Washington walked with one gone and quickly scurried around the bases on a double by Joe Caruso down the left field line. Pachot plated Caruso by rifling a shot into the left field corner for his second RBI of the contest.
Caruso, a Lock Haven High School grad, turned in several spectacular plays at third base in addition to an RBI and run scored. Caruso had seven assists and a putout and started a sparkling double play in the Erie first following Ross’s run-scoring double. The Seawolves had Ross stealing third with cleanup hitter Jhonny Perez at the plate. Ross got a tremendous jump and appeared to have the base swiped when Perez hit a shot that Caruso moving toward the bag on the attempted steal gloved, tug the sliding runner and fired to first to complete the twin killing and end the inning.
Grabow allowed a single to begin the second inning, then retired 15 of the next 16 Erie batters from the second through the sixth innings, with the only baserunner, an infield hit by Jorge Meran. Chris Spurling came on with two outs in the eighth to notch his 18th save, giving up one hit and striking out one in an inning and 1/3.
With the win, the Curve improves to 62-53 to tie the franchise record of nine games above .500, achieved on September 1, 2000, before Altoona dropped the final three games of the season
