Aaron Shortridge Continues To Eat Innings In Altoona

In his second year with Altoona, Aaron Shortridge is turning into an inning eating starting pitcher for the Curve.

When looking at the pitchers who have exclusively pitched in the minors this season, no one has pitched more innings than Altoona right-handed pitcher Aaron Shortridge.

That’s a big step coming from someone who before last season hadn’t pitched since 2019 - when he tossed 135 innings for Bradenton (then the organization’s High-A team).

After working his way back into the mix of things last year, the Pirates have let him loose this season, and has strung together a nice stretch of games lately - that has seen him eat up a good amount of innings as well.

In his last eight starts, Shortridge has compiled a 5-2 record, posting a 3.58 ERA across 50.1 innings pitched. That has included a nine inning complete game victory on the 11th this month, where he allowed just one run while striking out seven batters.

In that time frame, he’s averaging over six innings pitched per start, and has struck out 43 batters. A big reason in him being able to pitch deeper into games has been his ability to throw strikes and limit runners getting on base.

Shortridge has nearly cut his walk rate in half compared to last year (12.2% to 7.7%), and over his last games is issuing a free pass just 3.5% of the time.

Of the 20 earned runs he’s allowed in his last eight games, 11 of them have come in a two-start span towards the end of July. Take those two starts out and he’s posting a 2.05 ERA in the other six games.

Even if he isn’t considered a traditional prospect at this point, Shortridge turned 26 during the season, it’s good to see a pitcher be able to return to a full workload after missing so much time and being limited last year.

I got a chance to see Shortridge pitch earlier in the season while the Curve was in Richmond, and did a brief writeup on him for P2.

He had dealt with some early inning struggles throughout the season, but once he got settled and started to command his fastball - especially lower in the zone - looked much better and finished strong.

The stuff isn’t overpowering, but with strong command of his fastball, it could help him continue to get hitters out at the Double-A level.