Two for Three in Louisville ... Rain!

DBAP, 25 April, 11:15 am

The weather does not look good at the moment, but they are obviously going to try. The Bulls probably did not get a lot of quality time on the golf course yesterday (or this morning). Check out our Coping With Rain link to see our thoughts on dealing with rainy days.

Not that the weather was all that good for the road trip. A rain suspension last week led to a double-header on Saturday. Then there was the 13-inning marathon on Sunday that was lost after the Bulls ran out of pitchers (scheduled starter Chin-We Hu was called up and it was a game of relief pitchers). Veteran catcher Michael McKenry was drafted to pitch the 13th inning (apparently for the first time in his 11 years as a pro). Things didn't go well and the Bulls lost.

More to the point, why was he out there in the first place? Well let's go over the key transactions.

• Starting pitcher Chi-We Hu was called up to Tampa Bay on Saturday. He made his first major league appearance on Sunday, putting in one inning in relief in a rainy loss to Baltimore.
• Reliever Ryan Garton was also called up to Tampa Bay and he's made two appearances in relief so far on Friday and Saturday.
• RHP Kyle Winkler was called up from the Montgomery Biscuits and put in 2 innings in Sunday's marathon in Louisville. Winkler has two one-game stints with the Bulls in previous years: 3 innings in 3 games in 2015 and 1 1/3 innings in 1 game last year. 
• RHP Edwin Fierro also came up from Montgomery to make his AAA debut. He pitched 3 innings in the Sunday Marathon and began his AAA career with a blown save.

The Washington Nationals Triple-A team, the Syracuse Chiefs are in town for a three-game series. They've won their last 6 games in a row, against Norfolk (3 games), Toledo (2 games), and Rochester (1 game). On the Chiefs roster is outfielder Joey Butler, a guy we really liked watching play back in 2015. He's currently on the disabled list, so not sure we'll see him this time.

Statistically, the two teams match up pretty well.