Ugly and Uglier

Wrap, Box

Season: 76-49; Trip: 0-2; Magic Number: 8
Wrap, Box, Gwinnett Daily Post

“Against a team that’s had our number. Payback for sure.”

Gwinnett Braves Manager Randy Ready, Gwinnett Daily Post

We have to point out that it hasn’t been just the Bulls who’ve had Gwinnett’s number this year — it’s been every team in the league. But I’m not knowledgable enough (or maybe just too lazy) to figure out why. We can note that they’ve had a big turnover in the manager/coaching staff. That might have made the difference. Certainly their parent club is doing mostly OK.

At any rate, on Tuesday the Bulls went ahead on a Chris Gimenez home run in the 9th, but then Kirby Yates, of all people, couldn’t close it out and Beckham threw the ball so far past second base that a runner scored from first base.

Last night was a bit different in that Mike Montgomery was allowed a bit of “development” in the 3rd inning as Gwinnett sent 10 batters to the plate and scored six runs.

The oddity of the evening was Tim Beckham’s ejection, apparently for arguing a called third strike in the 8th. That interrupted Mike Fontenot’s day off, but only for a half-inning. That's the first ejection of a Bulls player that I can recall this year. Any others?

Maybe this little burst of cool weather will help. It just doesn’t sound like the Bulls are having fun.

Outside the game —

• Here are a couple of links to an important piece of writing on the Rays pitching coach Jim Hickey’s,approach to developing young pitchers. Former (and possibly future) Bull Chris Archer is a focus of the piece. Rays Index and ESPN.
• Going forward trying to guess what the Rays might do, and the effect that could have on the Bulls, is tricky to figure.  A recent piece in The Process Report gives it a try.