Only So Much Nostalgia

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Game 32: Durham Bulls (Rays) 5; Indianapolis Indians (Pirates) 7

Season: 19-13; Last 10: 8-2; This Home Stand: 4-1

Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun, MiLB

The good and the bad of the old Durham Athletic Park hasn't changed from last year: seating, field lighting, winning the game — not good; field conditions, nostalgic touches (Clay Aiken singing, Charlie Montoyo and Bill Evers playing catch) — great.

The game this time started out slow and seemed to get slooooower, coming in at just over 3 hours, but it seemed much longer. Jeremy Hall had his best start in his short time with the Bulls and Ryan Reid did the same. That meant that at the end the 6th the Bulls were up 4-2 and things looked OK.

Dane De La Rosa came in for his first time since April 29th (we won't count his one pitch appearance against these same Indians on May 3rd). Rusty is perhaps not exactly the right word. Six hits and five runs later, the Bulls were pretty much out of the game. It was left only for R.J. Swindle to have his best inning of the year in the 9th. (Trivia: R.J.'s first appearance as a Bull was last year's DAP game).

One other positive feature to this game is that the Indians used six relievers (did not have a regular starter for reasons I did not learn), which might be an advantage to the Bulls as the home stand continues.

Remember Aneury Rodriguez? He was a pitcher I loved watching in the 2010 season. He's now a starter for the Houston Astros and got roughed up a bit last night in his second major league start. Oddly enough, there's a chance that he could end up being a Bull again this year because he was picked up on the Rule 5 draft and if the Astros don't keep him on their 25-man roster he has to come back to the Rays. But wouldn't it be neat if he made it as a major league starter? We can hope for him.

Couple more photos from last night.

Let's go back to the DBAP!