Matchup: Durham Bulls vs Louisville Bats

In one of oddest of the many oddities of this season's schedule, the Louisville Bats are coming to town tonight. This is the first time in our memory that an out-of-division team has ever visited twice in a season. Not only that, although the Bulls will play the Bats eight times this year, six games will have been in Durham and only two in Louisville. The Bulls did not do well in the previous games, losing 4 of the 5.

The Louisville Bats, Triple-A team of the Cincinnati Reds, is in third place in the International League West. By the stats geeks Pythagorean Expectation formula, they "should" be doing much, much worse than they are. By PE their won-loss record should be 45-60, which would push them down into last place in the IL West, behind the Toledo Mud Hens, the team the Bulls just swept.

The Bulls offensive stats ticked up every so slightly this week. Here's hoping that continues.

Outside the game —

• The Raleigh News & Observer has not entirely abandoned Bulls coverage this year, although the game stories are just a cut-and-paste from the Bulls "wrap" items. The paper has been doing occasional feature articles. Today they had one on Eddie Gamboa and his knuckleball. Pretty good. Have to wonder, though, why the photo is of Gamboa in a Mexican winter league team uniform not throwing a knuckleball.
• More on Patrick Kinas' trip to the Summer Olympics here, with video. Sounds like a lot of work (and a lot of fun).