Anderson Leads Bulls To Eighth Win in a Row

Season: 63-35; Streak: 8-0
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

Even if it feels like mid-season, it isn’t. The middle of the Bulls’ season occurred back on June 18, almost a month ago. Nevertheless, these next couple of days are the only really free days the players will have till the end, so let’s hope they enjoy them.

Three Bulls will be heading to Reno, Nevada for the Triple-A All-Star game, J.D. Martin, Vince Belnome, and Kirby Yates. A fourth Bull, Reliever C.J. Riefenhauser, gets his time off after pitching in the All-Star Futures game last night (one inning, did not allow a runner on base).

The Bulls go into the break looking very good. We’ll do some statistical stuff over the next couple of days, but this 8-game winning run pretty much establishes the Bulls as the best team in the International League.

Leslie Anderson, who has been knocking on the Rays’ door for a long time now, kept it up last night. He started in left field. Anderson got on base with a single in the 2nd, and scored on Evan Frey’s sacrifice fly. In the 6th he put one into the Diamond View stands. If there’s a worry about Anderson these days, it’s that he seems to be really straining to get up to speed on the base paths.

J.D. Martin got his 11th win, the best in the International league. He’s tied for the most starts (19), 3rd in innings pitched, and 6th in ERA. He’s having a great year and is expected to put in an inning out in Reno against the Pacific Coast League.

After the 7th inning, we went up to catch a late meal at the Tobacco Road restaurant and watched the last couple of innings there. Josh Lueke added thrills to the end of the game as he had a lot of trouble finding the plate (although I think he did hit the plate with the bouncer that let a run in). He got a save, but his ERA ballooned up from 0.45 to 0.66 and his WHIP went from 0.81 to 0.84. Not sure when the Rays are going to call him up and keep him up, but surely before the end of the season. In the meantime let's enjoy his work … even if it does mean a couple of thrills and exceptional patience between pitches.

Outside the game —

• More on C.J. Riefenhauser’s night in New York here. Too bad he couldn’t wear his Bulls hat.
• Former Durham Bull Ben Zobrist is playing in the All-Star game. He gets a nice feature about his time with the Bulls in today’s New & Observer. [Note: that’s twice in recent days we’ve had something nice to say about the N&O. What’s going on over there?]