Durham Bulls Off to Good Start

 Game 2, Durham Bulls 4; Memphis Redbirds o

Season: 2-0

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Here's a cut & paste from the Bulls report

FRANCO BLASTS FIRST TRIPLE-A HOMER, RYAN FANS NINE IN 4-0 SHUTOUT WIN

Consensus #1 prospect Wander Franco homers & drives in two; starter Joe Ryan earns 1st Triple-A victory

MEMPHIS, TN – Durham second baseman Wander Franco and center fielder Vidal Brujan both homered, while Bulls starter Joe Ryan struck out nine and yielded just two hits in five innings pitched in a 4-0 two-hit shutout win over the Memphis Redbirds on Wednesday night at AutoZone Park.

 

Brujan bashed the fifth pitch of the game for a leadoff longball off St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Miles Mikolas, who was with Memphis on a Major League Rehab Assignment to start the scoring. Two innings later, Brujan would score on Franco’s run-scoring double to right.

 

Franco would later smash a solo shot to left in the fifth for his first career Triple-A home run. The 20-year-old, unanimously touted as the top overall prospect in baseball, has recorded five hits over his first nine at-bats through two games with Durham.

 

Ryan (5.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 9 K) retired each of the first 12 batters he faced, which included five consecutive strikeouts at one point, before Memphis DH Austin Dean clubbed a double to left to start the fifth. Ryan earned the win while Mikolas (2.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, BB, 3 K) suffered the defeat. Bulls relievers Phoenix Sanders (1.0 IP, K), Ryan Sherriff (1.0 IP, BB, 2 K), Stetson Allie (1.0 IP, K) and Tyler Zombro (1.0 IP) combined for four hitless frames to preserve the shutout, with Redbirds RF Lane Thomas’ seventh-inning walk the lone blemish.

 

Durham and Memphis are slated to square off in the third game of their six-game series on Thursday evening. First pitch is scheduled for 7:45pm ET. Starting pitchers for both clubs have not yet been announced.

Some additional love for Wander Franco here.