All Hail the Bullpen

The Rochester Red Wing Photo courtesy Baseball Stadium Reviews

Game 95, July 18, Frontier Field, Rochester, New York
Durham Bulls (Rays) 4, Rochester Red Wings (Twins) 1
Season: 53-42; This Trip: 5-2
Wrap, Box, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

Let's stop obsessing about the roster changes and talk about baseball. How about the Bulls bullpen crew?

Going into the game the fact that the Bulls only had 9 pitchers on the roster hinted that the Bulls best strategy would be to take advantage of the storm clouds out over Lake Ontario. That is, score some runs and pray for rain. Turned out that an even better strategy was to just let the bullpen pitch. Ryan Reid and Lance Cormier combined for six innings. Jay Buente, Rob Delaney, and Dane De La Rosa did one each. Only one run scored. Great job.

New guy catcher Nevin Ashley went 0-4, but his ground out RBI in the 4th started Durham's scoring. In the next inning Brandon Guyer got a rare triple (his second, only the Bulls 11th this year) and then came home on Felipe Lopez's single. The icing on the cake was Dan Johnson's homer in the 8th that brought home Felipe Lopez.

The win guarantees a successful road trip and put the Bulls 11 games above .500, the best level this year. Gwinnett, however, kept on with their winning ways are are still a half-game ahead in the South.

I know it's just listening to the radio, but this game had a team-like feel to it. I like that. Andy Sonnastine starts today. Lets see if he can keep it up.

Elsewhere:

• Here's a bit more on the Lobaton injury. |St. Pete Times|
• Fernando Perez is back in professional baseball with the New York Mets. Makes sense. Fernando is something of a New York lad. He has a minor league contract and will be with Buffalo Bisons. The Bulls play the Bisons next month in Buffalo. |Bisons.com|
• Stacy Long over at Biscuit Crumbs keeps track of several players who've gone through the Rays system (scroll down). Note familiar Bulls names such as Jason Cromer, Chris Mason, and others. |Biscuit Crumbs|