Big Crowds; Big Losses

Season: 20-18; Home Stand: 0-4
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

This may have been the worst Durham Bulls home stand in my memory. Fortunately, also one of the shortest.

After playing to virtually empty stands in Buffalo and Syracuse, the Bulls did not reward the 38,503 fans who came out to the DBAP over the last 4 days. Instead, Bulls pitchers served up 5 home runs and 12 doubles among the 53 hits and 26 runs scored.

Meanwhile, Bulls hitters managed just 29 hits, with 3 doubles and 2 home runs, and scored only 8 runs.

A few years ago during a hitting drought a rumor circulated that Bulls hitters had taken their bats down to that open area behind the gate in right field and built a bonfire with them. Time to do that again?

In an effort to find at least some light, let me mention the return of José Dominguez, who had a nice inning; and the nice work of Jordan Norberto and Andy Oliver, who kept things from being even worse.

Matchup

The Bulls hit the road for four games in three days in Rochester, then meet the RailRiders on their home turf for four games, then they are back a week from today, hoping the ACC teams have not torn up the ragged-looking DBAP turf too much.

The Twins’ AAA team, the Rochester Red Wings lead the league in batting average and are second in OPS, so they are going to be a challenge to Bulls pitching. Then there’s the oddity of a scheduled double header on Tuesday. Not sure why/how that happened, but that is going to be a real stretch for the bullpen. I don’t think any of our current Bulls position players have any pitching experience, but I think that Mayo Acosta is still traveling with the team and he’s got 3 innings under his belt last year.