Durham Bulls Losing At Home Have Been

Game 111, August 5, DBAP
Lehigh Valley IronPigs 4, Durham Bulls 3
Season: 62-49; Streak: 0-2; Home Games Remaining: 15
Wrap, Box, Indy Week, Bacon & Biscuits

We'll get to that image in a moment. First let's talk about the Bulls new bullpen, especially the left-handed relief specialist Cesar Ramos. He faced three batters in the 5th, all left-handed. He came in with runners on first and second, two outs, and his first batter hit a double to send in the runner from second and tie the game. He walked his second batter and got the third to hit a weak base-loaded liner to short to finish the inning. The IronPigs lefty specialist (Mike Zagursky) came on in the 7th and 8th inning and the game at 4-3. He faced four Bulls left-handed batters and got them all out.

Joe Bateman took the loss, possibly from trying too hard on a close play at first. It is not going to be easy to come from behind with this team. Russ Canzler, more often than not the hero, had the best chance in a bases loaded situation in the 5th, but couldn't pull it off.

About the image. Tonight is a "Star Wars" night at the DBAP in support of the Autism Society of North Carolina. The players will be in special jerseys that have already drawn a some attention on the web. They will be actioned during the game. I'll be putting a couple hundred bucks up for Reid Brignac's jersey. I'm sure that Cork Gaines of Rays Index will reimburse me.

The big down side of the Star Wars theme is that it's likely to encourage broadcaster Neil Solondz's propensity towards "Yodaisms". A Yoda-ism is a sentence with the verb stuck out on the end such as, "Tonight Dan Johnson on first base playing is." Or, "Russ Canzler deep fly ball off the Blue Monster hit." On the other hand, unlike some political figures of the past, most of the time his sentences do have a verb. I guess we should be thankful for that.

We do need the Force, however. This winning on the road (7-3), losing at home (5-6), needs to change.

The Herald-Sun did a piece on IronPigs manager, Ryne Sandberg. Worth a look.