Nice Day for Baseball

Game 49: Bulls 10, Bisons 2
Season: 31-18
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun Story

Perfect weather. Nice crowd. Good baseball. Bulls win. What more could you ask for?

I’m becoming a believer in Carlos Hernandez. Did not walk a single batter. Kept things in check when they could have gotten out of hand in the 4th. Went 8 full innings, the best of any Bulls pitcher this year.

Bateman is looking pretty darn good, too. Neil Solondz calls it a “frisbee pitch” and I’m guessing that right-handers have one heck of a time figuring out just where that ball is coming from/going to. ERA of 0.87 to boot.

But gotta talk about one of my two favorite Bulls, Jon Weber (the other is Chris Richard). Homer, double, walk, 3 RBI, 3 runs scored. What a night for the leadoff man. And with Joyce being called up, probably going to see more time in left field where he rules the Blue Monster. While checking his stats I noticed an interesting cluster of On Base Percentages: Richard .365, Ruggiano .357, Weber .356. Those are good numbers and tells us something about why we’re doing so well this year.

Another nice feature of last night’s game: only three strikeouts.

Some good quotes from Craig Albernaz in the Herald-Sun story linked above.

Player moves:

• Matt Joyce to Tampa Bay (no surprise there).
• Dale Thayer coming back. He appeared in three games for the Rays. Did OK. I think he’s better than some in the Rays bullpen, but I’m just a blogger.
• Chris Mason, re-invented as a reliever, possibly taxied over to Durham from Zebulon where the Biscuits are playing (and losing to) the Mudcats.

Player news: David Price, who didn’t show us much here in Durham, had a great game in Tampa yesterday. Sure would have been nice to have seen that kind of stuff while he was here.

What’s with the Norfolk Tides? Eighteen games over .500! We’ll catch up with them, but how come Baltimore is leaving all that talent down there?