Knights' Night

Game 12, Monday, April 15, Knights Stadium, Ft Mill, South Carolina
Charlotte Knights 14; Durham Bulls 2
Season: 6-6; Trip: 1-4
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

This road trip is turning into some kind of ugly. So far the Bulls have scored 15 runs to their opponent’s 39. Charlie Montoyo and pitching coach Neil Allen are famously intolerant of bases on balls, so last night’s 12 freebies must have them upset.

Alexander Torres we have written about earlier. Last night wasn’t the turnaround we’d hoped for. Maybe next time out. Josh Leuke’s first appearance as a Bull showed a lot of rust. Unless I’m misreading the stats, he only made two appearances with the Rays, April 7 and April 13, 2⅓ innings, 9 hits, 7 ER. Last night’s inning, 4 hits, 5 ER, wasn’t good either. But his record is much, much better than that. We can hope.

Good news? Only 1300 fans on hand. Does Charlotte have a problem there?

But now the Bulls have these two 11:00 am starts. Gonna get weirder before it gets better.

Outside the game:

• Alex Cobb is coming back; Brendan Gomes went up. Good news for both the players and the Bulls. I’m sure Mr. Cobb wouldn’t agree, but the Bulls really need a starting pitcher and I hope he can put up with us for at least a month or so.
• Every been curious about the knuckleball? A fan seated near me the other night pointed me towards this terrific interview and podcast with the Mets pitcher R.A. Dickey. He just might be the last knuckleballer in the game. Very interesting guy to listen to.
• Yet another amazing image by Flip Flop Fly Ball’s Craig Robinson. This one in Smithsonian Magazine. He charts the average number of runs per team per game per year over the history of baseball. And just for fun he throws in just how much further baseball players are going to have to run to get to the moon.