Strike 'Em Out; Throw 'Em Out

Season: 35-23; Home Stand: 3-0
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

The thrill of the game (for me, at least) came on the very last play(s). Jeff Beliveau on the mound in the 9th inning (he of the 0.00 ERA). Runner on 1B by way of a lead-off walk. But Mr. Beliveau gets to two outs an out (fly ball to left field) and up to 3-2 on the batter. Runner goes. Batter strikes out looking. Catcher Curt Casali pegs out the runner. Games ends on a strike ‘em out, throw ‘em out double play that was a kick. Beliveau’s ERA still 0.00 and he now has 6 saves.

Meanwhile, earlier in the game, Enny Romero had his best start is a very long time. Just one earned run over 6⅔ innings. Vast improvement over his last game, actually over his last seven games. And then Brandon Gomes had a nice outing of four K’s after giving up a hit. He’s a real asset to the Bulls, but you have to think he won’t be with the team all that long.

I made a note to myself that the IronPigs can’t seem to sort out their middle infield crew, and yet they also kept the ‘Pigs in the game with two very timely double plays. So could be just a matter of the manager making do with a short roster.

All the Bulls' scoring came in the 2nd, when they put up four runs on a walk, single, and two doubles.

The oddity of the game was seeing infielder Jason Nix at 1B and Wilson Betemit playing 3B. There is no reference to Nix ever playing 1B in his minor or major league career. But he did a decent job. Wonder where he got his glove?

For Betemit, however, he just hasn’t played much 3B for the Bulls. He’s played that position quite a bit over the years and looked just fine at it yesterday.

Outside the game —

• Meanwhile the Gwinnett Braves lost again. The Bulls are now 12 games above .500 (the best so far this year) and 4.5 games ahead of the Braves in the standings.
• The Rays continue their downward slide. Unfortunately the three most recent additions from the Bulls — Sands, Kiermaier, and Solis — have not been able to help very much. Sands and Kiermaier were hitless yesterday and Solis did not play (although he was report to be OK after the boink into his nose on Saturday.
• I think I mentioned that the Rays found a place on their 40-man by putting infielder Tim Beckham on the 60-day Disabled List. At one point we were worried that the middle infield could get a bit crowded with Fontenot, Olmedo, Nix, Lee, and Price leaving little room for Beckham. But that problem has been put off for a while.
• A note yesterday pointed out that the 11 callups so far this year match the total number of callups for all of last year.