Bat Bit

Game 68: Durham Bulls 4, Louisville Bats 5
Season: 40-28; Last 10: 6-4
Wrap, Box, Louisville Courier-Journal

Let’s get the ugly, like that bat, out of the way first:

Bottom of the 9th; game tied at 4-4; Mike Ekstrom hits the first batter who then gets to second base on a sacrifice bunt; Angel Chavez bobbles a grounder; runners now on first and third; sacrifice fly; game over.

That hurt.

On the other hand, Justin Ruggiano got a home run, his first in what seems like a very long time. So did Alvin Colina.

Joe Dillon played for the first time since his heroic crawl to the plate on May 27th. Joe was playing first base, perhaps because of Ryan Shealy’s departure. Joe played the position several times last year, but this is the first time this year. He got two RBI off of his one hit. Welcome back, Joe.

The Bulls normally show better plate discipline than they did last night. Their 14 strikeouts were one below a season high of 15 set back in early April.

My comments yesterday on the rotation were obviously wrong. My apologies. Gonna have to re-polish my crystal ball (or listen to Neil more carefully). But it had been a week since Rodriguez’s last start. So he did OK. Jeremy Hellickson starts tonight after five days off. The rainout and the day off has messed up things badly for Bulls pitchers. Who starts next? I ain't gonna say.

Then there is Dale Thayer’s return to form. He went two innings, faced only six batters, threw only 19 pitches. That’s the guy we knew.

In case anyone missed it, we have had a comment on Elliot Johnson’s condition. It is a strained quad. He’s resting it and says its feeling better every day. [Thanks, N]

Webstuff:

RaysProspects has put up a Bulls week in review item.

DRaysBay has put up a table of downticket Rays pitchers. Interesting to see who’s doing well down in Montgomery.

Jon Weber has arrived in Toledo, to some positive comments.