Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Never Say Die

Game 111: Bulls 7, Indians 6
Season: 63-48
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun, Indy Week

A phenomenal end to what was, up to the last moment, a not-very-interesting game. I’ll be honest and admit that we left when the Bulls were down by five runs in the 6th. We listened to the game on our drive home and while we stopped off at a Goodberry’s not far from the house (ice cream there is way better than at the DBAP). The game was in the bottom of the 9th by the time we’d gotten home and I had let the dogs out and gotten the computer fired up.

Not much later Neil Solondz was going nuts and we had a win!

Great effort on the part of the Bulls, just great. Check out the links for details on how it happened.

This Indianapolis team was good. I find it hard to understand why their record is so poor in what is the IL’s weakest division this year. Must be turmoil and roster changes. They certainly had our starters’ numbers. Davis, Sonnanstine, and Hellickson all took hits to their ERAs while the Indians were here. Speaking of hits, Jeremy Hellickson set a season high for our pitchers of three hit batters last night (seemed to be having a bit of a control problem with his curveball).

Reliever Joe Nelson made his first appearance last night and did a terrific job. He is the 27th different pitcher to wear a Bulls uniform this year. Two were position players, and three were coming by on a rehab assignment, but that is still a lot of pitchers. I’ll have to take a look at previous years to see if that’s normal or not.

Here’s hoping the Bulls enjoy their day off.

6 comments:

  1. That 9th inning was a lot of fun. If you want to see the key hits, the video recap on the Bulls website has them.

    I was impressed by Desmond Jennings at bat in the 9th. I would think a lot of young guys there, being the tying run, would got for a big swing. He put down a perfect bunt and had the speed to beat it. It is nice to have a little speed back on the team.

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  2. The die-hard Bulls fans in section 208 wienied out too early, huh?

    Wasn't it Yogi who said, "It ain't over til it's over"?

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  3. I don't regret leaving early; the team looked flat, and the Indians looked very sharp.

    I'm guessing they could use another closer.

    Dave

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  4. I bailed at the end of the 7th when we were down by 3. After squandering opportunities to bring runners home with multiple outs left in two other innings, it didn't look like we had a big comeback in us. Boy was I was wrong!

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  5. P.S. Besides Desmond Jennings, I'm going to be interested in seeing how Rhyne Hughes shapes up. My memory is that he struck out on four swings the first time up but had a real solid hit second time. Serious bat speed it seems.

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  6. One of the really cool things about both Jennings and Hughes is that since there doesn't seem to be much room with the Rays, we might get to see them develop through much of next year too (much as we've gotten a close look at Joyce all year). So fun this year and next year.

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