Youth vs. Age

Season: 54-60; Home Stand: 2-0; Bulls v. Braves: 9-8

Home Games Left: 17; Standings

Box, Wrap, Herald-Sun

The Atlanta Braves have taken an interesting approach to dealing with their end-of-season minor league pitching needs. Looks like they may be thinking about re-naming the team something like the Gwinnett Geriatrics. Last night they started out with a 41-year old (Miguel Batista), followed by a 34 year old, a 30 year old, and finished with a 33 year old.

The Bulls, for their part, began with new guy Alex Colome (23), followed by a 25 year old, a 24 year old, and then finished with the senior member of the corps, 29 year old Dane De La Rosa.

Alex Colome was terrific in his AAA debut outing. Possibly a bit nervous at first, his first five pitches were in the 95 to 97 mph range, but four of the five were balls. But he had a very solid, 98 pitch outing. The guy who scared me was Frank De Los Santos. For the first time since showing up here, the lefty had some pretty serious trouble in the 8th, giving up a home run after letting two guys get on base. Fortunately that came after Stephen Vogt’s heroics in the 7th when his triple put two runs across. That was followed by a single by Leslie Anderson that sent Vogt home and then a Chris Gimenez double that sent Anderson home. Terrific inning that won the game for the Bulls.

Outside the game —

• A pretty good crowd came out to watch Evan Longoria strike out, draw a walk, and hit a fly ball and a grounder. From my seat in the stands, he does not look good. He made it to third base after his leadoff walk in the 4th and stood on the base through three batters (another story there, the Bulls left 10 runners on base last night). The whole time he was stretching and keeping his weight off his left leg. He has not been particularly helpful as a Bull, 3 for 19 in this visit (all singles), with 6 walks and 5 Ks. Just about the same as Hideki Matsui, who managed four RBIs during his visit. Reports are that he’s off to St. Petersburg soon.
• Matt Mangini is off the inactive list and expected to play soon.
• On the bench: Mangini, Wrigley, Thompson (defensive sub in the 9th for Anderson), and Ashley (Albernaz on DL). 
• Some chatter out there that former Bull RHP Jeff Niemann is well into his rehab as he recovers from a  broken leg. That could mean him showing up to pitch for the Bulls. Also note Maddon’s comments in the same item about possibly calling up Alex Colome.
• Down in Daytona Beach, Florida, the DJ got ejected from the game and the audio shut down for the rest of a game. Reason: DJ was playing, “Three Blind Mice.” Story. Video.