Pain

Season: 15-26; Home Stand: 0-2; vs. Red Sox: 0-6; Standings
Box, Wrap, Herald-Sun, Indy Week

Seeing all these big name baseball stars can be fun. But only if you’re not a fan of Durham Bulls baseball. In that case, not so much. In fact, watching Durham Bulls baseball is painful.

I once had a stretch of several months when I spent an inordinate amount of time in a dentist’s chair. That’s what last night was like. I felt a bit like the Dustin Hoffman character in Marathon Man.

I know it’s masochistic of me to do this (and perhaps sadistic to inflict it on you), but let’s go over last night. In the 1st inning, after two outs, Lance Pendleton walked the next two batters. But he got away with it. In the 2nd inning he started out with two BBs. Even with a double play, one of the walks scored. In the 3rd inning after two outs, he walked a batter, but, as in the 1st, got away with it.

[Is that a mosquito in my ear? Am I having a flashback? Are the screams for Matsui or the “Yuuk! Yuuk! Yuuk!” cheers morphing into some weird auditory hallucination?]

The 4th inning’s walk came after only one out. That runner was wild-pitched into scoring position, but Pendleton escaped unharmed. The 5th inning, ahhh, the 5th inning. No walks here. Just pure baseball: single, double, home run, single, single off the team of Lance Pendleton and Romulo Sanchez.

But wait, here comes the 7th inning. Two outs. Gaub on the mound. Walk. Reid comes in. Walks his first batter. Runners on first and second. A run scores on a single to right. That play was highlighted by a really crappy throw by Jeff Salazar, although I think the run would have scored anyhow. (Red Sox ahead 5-4). 8th inning. Two outs followed by a walk, but no runs score. 9th inning. Two outs followed by a walk.

For those who might be counting (not really a mentally healthy activity under the circumstances) Bulls pitchers walked 7 batters after they had two outs last night. (11 overall, but who’s counting?)

As the Herald-Sun quoted Charley Montoyo after the game:

No excuses — tough to watch when you keep walking people. This game was the story of the whole season: Leaving people on base and walking people.

I guess I didn't mention that the Bulls left 10 runners on base. Charley has it right.

But new guy Hideki Matsui did get his first hit. It was a pretty wall-ball double that scored two runs.

Outside the game

• It becomes more clear why Kyle Hudson was shipped off to Hudson Valley yesterday. Sometime in the past few days recently called-up Brandon Guyer was injured. Showing (what’s the right word here? Contempt?) extreme lack of confidence in either Jesus Feliciano, Jeff Salazar, Leslie Anderson, Henry Wrigley, or Mr. Hudson, the Rays went off to the Phillies to get a guy who has had one major league at bat. How can that not work on the heads of the Durham Bulls outfield?
• Most recent word out of St. Pete is that Will Rhymes, who collapsed on the field after being hit by a pitch last night, is OK. Good news. The hammering we’re hearing from down that way is coming from the crews hard at work expanding the Rays’ rehab facility. Depending on how you want to count them, at least 10 Rays are on a disabled list.

Chart of the Day

Walks/Hits per Inning

WHIP is not particularly popular with the stats geeks. But it's an easy stat to compute and understand. Essentially, WHIP tells you how many guys get on base per inning. Sabermetrics guys think that 1.62 is awful. We've got a bunch of guys well above awful and only a few who make the "average" (1.32) cut line. I left Josh Lueke on the chart because I'm guessing he will be coming back in a day or so.