Two For the Road

Season: 59-53; Trip: 1-3
Wrap, Box 111, Box 112, Charlotte Observer

The Durham Bulls drifted back down to six games above .500 after a dismal showing in dismal weather in Charlotte. The first game last night was the last 6 innings of a 9 inning resumed game from the previous night’s postponement. (Got that wrong yesterday. Pretty sure I heard the radio guys say it was to be 7 - innings.) The overall highlights of the first game were the four Charlotte home runs: One given up by Mike Montgomery on Thursday; two by Brandon Gomes and one by Doug Mathis on Friday.

The second game saw newcomer Nick Franklin in the lineup at second base. But he ended up being just one of many Bulls who went to bat with runners on base (the Bulls left 13 runners on base last night) and didn’t push any in.

Trivia of the night: Charlotte pitchers gave up 9 walks last night. Not a record for the Bulls, but close.

Matchup

Bulls took 3 out of 4 from the Phillies Triple A team, the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs at the end of May. The Pigs are having an awful year and, if their Pythagorean Expectation is to be believed, it could be even worse. They currently are in last place in the IL North Division. Does that mean the Bulls should have an easy time of if? Well, no, because let’s face it, the Bulls have been playing middle-of-the-road baseball lately.

To their credit, the Iron Pigs have one of the few fan blogs in all of minor league baseball, Noise Nation/Horn and Bell. The other being, well, WDBB, of course. They also get fairly good coverage from their local paper, which also has an Iron Pigs blog.