Promising Pitcher; Pants!

Game 4, April 10,  Durham Bulls Athletic Park

Charlotte Knights: 4

Durham Bulls: 6

Season: 3-1; Home Stand: 3-1
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

In his first Triple A start Austin Pruitt was spectacular — the longest and best outing of any starting pitcher this year. Kyle McPherson, who followed him, not so much.

In the top of the 4th RF Jaff Decker crashed into 2B Daniel Robertson not too long after hitting his home run in the bottom of the 3rd. Dayron Varona took his place and hit a double and a homer (3 RBI). Now that’s depth in right field.

What’s really different about the Durham Bulls this year? Trousers.

OK, it took me a while to notice, but I’m guessing youth (as in managerial youth) finally won out. Yesterday most of the Bulls were in long pants. In all previous years the only players in long pants were re-habbing major leaguers. Pitcher Austin Pruitt and 1B Richie Shaffer were holdouts in knee breeches.

First Look: Pitchers

RHP Austin Pruitt: 6 innings, 3 hits, 1 ER, 1 HR, 0 BB, 1 HBP, 11 K’s, Game Score - 73
For his AAA debut Pruitt had a career high number of strikeouts, a solid 6 inning start, and a win. He spent last year in Montgomery, pitching 160 innings and recording 122 K’s. He looks to be a very solid asset. Stats.
RHP Kyle McPherson: ⅔ innings, 2 hits, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 HBP, 2 K’s
McPherson was simply awful in his short outing. He has been playing pro ball for parts of 9 seasons, although the last time he put in a lot of innings was in 2011 in the Pittsburgh system. He’s coming back from surgery and spent 2015 in the Rays system. The Rays are good at spotting pitching talent, so we hope that this game is an anomaly.  Stats.

Outside the game —

• Set your recorders for PBS’s documentary on Jackie Robinson. Starts tonight on WUNC. 

Bulls hitting against Charlotte was pretty darn good. Here’s the team OPS for each game compared with a three-year International League average, and this year’s running IL average. [Update: I forgot to add that the current season OPS of .840 leads the IL]