Weeks 12 & 13: Bulls Have Solid Road Trip

 The Bulls come back home in a 4-way tie for first place in the International League East, with another team only ½ game back. [standings] They were 7-5 on their road trip to Jacksonville and Charlotte. 

Could it have been even better? Yes. A couple of Tampa Bay Rays players are among the ranks of vaccine deniers apparently. They were not allowed to travel to Toronto since Canada has the common sense policy of not letting folks visit who aren't vaccinated. That meant that the Rays cleaned out the Bulls' bullpen during the Charlotte visit. Mostly it didn't seem to matter, but last night's 12-inning marathon stretched them to a breaking point.

The Bulls' stats are looking good, with the notable exception of the relief crew.  Those guys saw a truly ugly rise last week. That will change, I hope, when the folks come back from Canada.

Matchup: Bulls v Redbirds

The Bulls have already played 12 games against the Memphis Redbirds this year. Six games here in Durham back in April and six games in Memphis a month ago. In April the Bulls got their head handed to them winning only one game of the six. In June in Memphis, things went only a little bit better as they won two games and lost four. Not to get too geeky about this, but that means of the 36 games the Bulls have lost this year 25% have been to the Memphis Redbirds. Just sayin'. This week could be a big deal.

Another oddity, in addition to playing an out-of-division team 18 times this year, is the Monday game today. The Bulls were playing ball until 11:00 last night and then traveled home. This is going to be a challenging series.