What a Difference a Day Makes

Game 19, April 25, Durham Bulls Athletic Park
Indianapolis Indians: 12
Durham Bulls: 1
Season: 10-9; Home Stand: 1-1
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

On Sunday we saw the best Bulls run differential of the year, +6. On Monday we saw the worst, -11.

Austin Pruitt, who, until last night, had a stellar start to his season, in just 3.2 innings saw his ERA go from 1.89 to 3.57. His FIP grew from 2.40 to 3.60; his WHIP from a superb 0.68 to a still pretty good 1.10. What hurt the most was what happened after a brilliant catch and throw home by Dayron Varona in the 2nd inning, that made up for the two singles that opened the inning. Pruitt then walked the next three batters, pushing in a run. A Taylor Motter home run kept the Bulls in the game, but 3 Indian runs in the 3rd and 4 more in the 4th could not be overcome.

The Bulls' new pitcher came in for the 9th, right-handed (of course) Danny Farqhar. Not an auspicious beginning as he gave up 2 more runs. Farquar is a 29 year old who opened the season with the Rays after several years with the Mariners. This year he’s only had 5.1 innings in 6 appearances. He’s does have 185 innings of major league time so it's a puzzle that he has not made more appearances with the Rays.  However, the Rays sent him down essentially in exchange for Jhan Marinez. With his time in service it’s surprising that he had options left. Stats.

Cole Figueroa was one of my all-time favorite Bulls and it was mostly good to see him again. I’d rather he’d been able to stick with the Yankees or the Pirates, and I’d rather he did not get his first hits this year against the Bulls — a single, a double, and a triple with 3 RBIs. Maybe he’ll go back up to the Pirates before we play against him again.

Cupholders!

Now for something much more important than my usual geek stuff. You may never have noticed that the front row of the Terrace View seats don’t have cupholders — they don’t. That's a circumstance that has led to more than one spilled cup of beer over the years. Mike Birling, the justly famous general manager of the Durham Bulls, promised that cupholders for those seats would be part of the multi-million dollar renovation a couple of years back, but they weren’t. In our annual conversations on the topic since then he has assured me (and others) that he’d take care of it. Several years on, after a visit to a local auto parts store, we’ve fixed the issue ourselves. Voila! Cupholders!