Fireworks (Not by Bulls) at the DBAP

Game 86, July 4, Durham Bulls Athletic Park, Durham,North Carolina
Syracuse Chiefs (Washington Nationals): 9
Durham Bulls (Tampa Bay Rays): 2
Season: 37-49; Home Stand: 0-1
Wrap, Box, Herald Sun

Stats:
Game Score: Shultz 56; Season Avg 55 (17 starts, 86.1 innings)
Tm OPS: Game .397; Season .651; Diff -.254
Tm wOBA: Game .193; Season .294; Diff -.101
[See note below]

Pretty ugly pitching and hitting, but the weather was fine and a big crowd saw the fireworks ... after the game.

Reliable Jamie Schultz did quite well. Mark Sappington and Neil Wagner were awful. After their appearances, the Bulls bullpen was essentially empty, although Parker Markel, Steve Geltz, and first baseman Cameron Seitzer filled in for a couple of innings.

The crew was limited to just three hits.

Outside the game —

• Taylor Motter is back. He's a fun player to watch. Just wish his bat would come back to 2015 levels.
• Starting pitcher Ryne Stanek is coming up from Montgomery. This will be his Triple-A debut, but the exact date hasn't been announced. Stats.
• Tyler Sturdevant has been called back to Tampa Bay.
• Outfielder Johnny Field has gone on the disabled list.

Note on Stats —

• Game Score gives you a sense of how the starting pitcher did in a game. A game score of 50 is a "quality start". In this case, Jamie Schultz had a quality start and is having an above average season.
• The Team OPS for this game was well below the team's season OPS, which is the worst in the International League. Not a good game at all.
• The stats geeks think that wOBA is a much better measure of individual performance than OPS. I like it. But no site I've found tracks wOBA for either  a team or a league, so these are my computations. After 86 games the Bulls are just at .294. An individual player with a wOBA of .300 is considered a "poor" player. A .320 wOBA is considered average.