Missed Chances

Game 115: Durham Bulls (Rays) 4; Charlotte Knights (White Sox) 5
Season: 71-44; Home Stand: 3-2; Games to Play: 28; Home Games: 12
Wrap, Box

Not much to say about last night, and besides it’s late in the day already. The Bulls had a couple of chances to win/go ahead in the game and didn’t.

Let’s just jump to trivia, odds and ends, etc.

• The Bulls haven’t hit a home run in the last five games and only one (by Elliot Johnson August 3) in the last seven.
• Speaking of Elliot Johnson, according to radio he is going to miss the next three games to attend to some family business.
• The Bulls will be playing a double header this Saturday at Gwinnett.
• I was wrong in my guess about last night’s starter (nothing new there). Virgil Vasquez is up tonight.
• Couple of interesting podcasts out there: Xavier Hernandez talking about dealing with a double header; Elliot Johnson about days off and some of the technical sides to playing the middle infield.
• J.J. Furmaniak played third base last night for only the third time this season. We were surprised to note that he has been in 52 games as a Bull. So he’s settled in.

Over in Detroit the Bulls made a big difference. Jeremy Hellickson pitched a stellar game for the Rays. Mike Ekstrom pitched a scoreless 9th inning. Dan Johnson worked out four walks. He scored after two of them, and on the last one the bases were loaded so he got an RBI. He’s managed to draw 11 walks for a .483 OBP since going up, even though he’s only hitting .176. Hard to think that they’d be pitching around him although he does have one homer. He’s already drawn a walk in today’s game, by the way, and batting lead off (who says Maddon doesn’t do quirky stuff?).