Sunday, September 13, 2009

We’re Going to Five

Durham Bulls 7, Louisville Bats 10
Wrap, Box, Indy Week, N&O, Courier-Journal

Well, it finally caught up with us. I had my hopes that somehow, someway the fact that we only have two starters wouldn’t make a difference. But it did, and does. Of course, the fact that we haven’t had one of our multi-homer games in what seems a very long time made a difference as well.

Raynor Oliveros and Mike Wlodarczyk bookended a night where three of the four pitchers who appeared in the game were new arrivals from Montgomery. Our guys gave up six runs in the first two innings, but we stayed in the game when their guy gave up six runs in the first three innings. So up until the 6th things weren’t all that bad. But we coughed up two in the 6th, off of Heath Rollins, and only got back one in the 8th. Meanwhile they got two more in the 8th off of Mike Wlodarczyk.

In defense of Oliveros, he had not pitched since September 5th, when he went seven innings and got a win against Norfolk. I’d be the last person to claim expertise on how pitchers’ fitness should be monitored, but that sure seems to me like a long time to go between starts. Did we get enamored with the “comeback” of Mitch Talbot? Or is this “rotation” hopelessly screwed up and Charlie and X. just have to figure it out an inning at a time?


Michel Hernandez hit a home run in the 2nd inning. Why is that a big deal? Because, unless I missed one, that was the first home run of the playoffs for the Durham Bulls. Oh, if only Chris Richard had been here these last couple of days, but, of course, he’s desperately needed to sit on the bench up in Boston. He’s got good company — Reid Brignac (1 game, 4 plate appearances) and Shawn Riggans (1 game, 1 AB).

But that is just whimpering, I suppose. We’d be in good shape if we could just get a hit off Louisville’s relievers. Our team OPS wasn’t all that bad (.736). We’ve won with worse, but not when the RISP is only 2-9. Louisville’s OBP was a whopping .436. Ugly things are gonna happen if almost half the opposing batters get on base and then if their RISP is 6-11, it can get worse.

Charlie Montoyo sort of says it all, as quoted in the N&O (The N&O covering a Bulls game? An away game?)
“It wasn’t a crazy game, it was just bad pitching,” Montoyo said. “Really there are no excuses. The pitching was just not very good.”
Shake it off, guys. New game tomorrow. We don’t have a regular starter available, but we do have the heart of our relief corps. The series is in your hands.

By the way, game starts at 5 o’clock.

14 comments:

  1. Like you, I'm curious about the N&O's sudden interest in the Bulls (they've covered abut half a dozen home games all year). The "correspondents" covering the games at Louisville are stringers who work for the Courier-Journal and are being paid by the N&O to file reports. I have no idea why the N&O is suddenly interested in the Bulls. Sure, it's the playoffs, but as you pointed out, the games are away, and the N&O didn't cover Games 1 & 2 at the DBAP. Odd...

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  2. I thought we really had a shot to pull that game out last night. Sigh.

    At least today both teams are on pretty even footing with the starters. We need some good patience at the plate and good pitching from the pen.

    I want to go to more Bulls games next week!

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  3. Adam-didn't even notice that it's the same byline for N&O and Courier-Journal stories, no wonder they had the same Montoyo quote.

    At a guess, Jim (i.e., Goodman) might have had a drink with Orage (Quarles, III) and mentioned it. I don't move in those circles. If Jim had been really interested, he'd have figured out how to get a video feed down this way. He is, after all, the local media king.

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  4. Actually getting to watch a Bulls' road game on TV? I would love that.

    Anyone given milb.tv a shot? If we can win today, I might have to shell out some cash for the next round of road games. I would like to be able to actually watch the Bulls try to win a championship.

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  5. I tried it once last year. After paying my money, was told the game was blacked out for me. Raised hell. Got my money back and haven't tried since. Maybe somebody else has tried and can let us know. If the Bulls go to Allentown -- big if -- it would be nice to watch.

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  6. Ugh. This game is not good for my heartburn.

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  7. Del Rosario on -- we have not figured this guy out.

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  8. See you at the DBAP on Tuesday.

    Dave

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  9. Yes!

    A lot of guys came up big today!

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  10. I "watched" today's game on GAMEDAY. It at least is more current than Bulls' web page. Great to see Justin do well. 99 THE FAN coverage sucks. Official Bulls station - - only when nothing else is available!!!

    202M5&6 will be 202Q Tuesday nite but I WILL be there.

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  11. Hate to say this now, but if you could watch gameday, you could also have gotten the webcast of Neil Solondz at the same time. Just click the "listen live" button under the box score and then there's a bit more clicking around. But it was there. That's how I heard the game tonight.

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  12. Yep, that is exactly what I do. Watch the gameday and listen along when I can. When I am out and about (oddly enough, my wife isn't always a big fan of spending a Friday or Saturday night at home watching a baseball game on the computer), I just keep an eye on the gameday page on my phone.

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