Eric Anthony Fornataro (born January 2, 1988 in Houston, TX) is a former professional baseball pitcher who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2014.

Fornataro was picked by the St. Louis Cardinals in the sixth round (#185) of the 2008 amateur draft and joined the Cardinal's system, playing for the GCL Cardinals (2-2, 1.74 in 9 G) and Johnson City Cardinals (0-1, Sv, 2.57 in 2 G). In 2009, he was with the Batavia Muckdogs (4-0, 2.15 in 8 G, .77 WHIP) and the Quad Cities River Bandits (0-5, 5.24 in 7 G).

He also played for the 2011 Palm Beach Cardinals, the 2012 Springfield Cardinals (3-3, 5 Sv, 2.39 in 57 G), He helped Springfield to the TL title, winning one extra-inning playoff game against the Tulsa Drillers then getting holds in two other games and in two games in the finals versus the Frisco RoughRiders. In 2014 he started back with Memphis (1-0, Sv, 0 R, 1 H in 5 IP).

Overall, Eric had significant success in the minors in the two seasons (2012-2014) in which he worked exclusively out of the bullpen, posting a 2.39 ERA and a 3.19 FIP in 67 ⅔ at Double-A Springfield in 2012 and a 2.57 ERA and a 4.27 FIP in 56 IP at Triple-A Memphis in 2014, where he earned 15 saves in 44 games.

Fornataro was called up to the majors when Joe Kelly went on the DL and Butler was demoted. In his MLB debut, he relieved Pat Neshek in the bottom of the 8th of a 2-0 loss to the New York Mets. He retired Lucas Duda, Travis d'Arnaud and Ruben Tejada in order. He pitched 8 times with no decisions and an ERA of 4.66 in 9 2/3 innings in what was his only major league season.

(excerpted from Baseball Almanac, BR Bullpen & Wikipedia)