Friday, August 3, 2012

Two 1-0 Shutouts in a Row!

Season: 53-60; Home Stand: 1-0; Bulls v. Braves: 8-8; 
Home Games Left: 18

For the first time this year, Bulls pitching put together two shutouts in a row. Congrats!

Somewhat similar to last Tuesday, the offensive side was small ball writ large: Nevin Ashley drew a walk, went to third on a Rich Thompson single, and scored when new guy Brooks Conrad hit into a double play. That was enough.

In the meantime, Chris Archer had his best game of the year. Six scoreless innings, no walks, one hit batter (to my eye the batter came out of the batter’s box and back in the dark ages of baseball would not have been called as a hit by pitch … but he (Jose Constanza) really was hurt by Archer’s fastball and had to leave the game), and 3 Ks. Tight control. MiLB story here.

His Braves counterpart, Yohan Flande is a pitcher who sometimes the Bulls get to and sometimes he gets to them. This time he got to them, mostly, even if he did take the loss.

The other big story was that the scoreboard got fixed and we had lights for balls, strikes, outs, hits, and errors. Don’t know about the Bull. The last time a Bulls batter hit a home run was on July 26 down in Gwinnett’s home park. Home runs are not a Bulls thing this year. So we may not find out for a while.

Well, maybe there is another big story. Former Bull (briefly) Evan Longoria was back in town and helped explain the 8,000 plus who came to a Thursday night game. They got to see him hit a single, draw a walk, and strike out twice. As much fun as it is to have him here, from a pure Bulls fan point of view the problem is that when he does get his eye back, he will be outa here. Nevertheless, the Herald-Sun and N&O write-ups are good reads. 

Outside the game —
  • According to both the Herald-Sun and Indy Week, Will Rhymes has been called up to Tampa Bay.
  • Last night probably wasn’t new guy Brooks Conrad’s first time in the DBAP. He played 110 games with Gwinnett back in 2009.
  • A circus act, the Russian Bar Trio, performed between innings, and drove the cynic out of me. They really were fun to watch. Wonder how they get the bar into their carry-on luggage? Couple of good videos at their website.

4 comments:

  1. Chris, what did you think of the Bulls article in the N&O earlier this week, http://newsobserver.com/2012/08/01/2238260/bulls-stuck-behind-rays-stars.html

    While I was glad to see coverage about the Bulls, I thought it was a pretty strange if not weak piece, and some facts that would have changed the slant of the piece were omitted.

    Almost all of the Bulls are new in Durham this year but the tone of the article made it sound like the current players were rotting in the minors forever with no hope to move up. The article could have highlighted the fact that many of the Rays regulars were Bulls regulars just one or two years ago!

    The Rays starting lineup it presented was comical - Elliot Johnson at 2nd - he's started 9 games there in 2012 vs. 79 at shortstop and Sean Rodriguez at short, with Ben Zobrist (all-star, team options through 2015) not even included in the Rays lineup table.

    OK, rant over. Looking forward to cheering on the Bulls tonight!

    Orin

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    1. I had an email exchange with the author on a few points and we sort of agreed to disagree. Article was written before Bulls left, Olympics coverage pushed it off until the other day, Allen's departure was missed. Not to brag, but I thought my piece a couple of days ago on how someone gets to TB was better. If TB thought anyone was ready, they'd have been called up. Instead they've gone elsewhere for help (two of whom are now here, Thompson and Conrad). I was going to rant as well and decided just to let it go. Didn't link because I wanted to get my charts post up and was feeling lazy.
      New pitcher tonight. Looking forward to seeing him. Colome is supposed to be good.

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  2. I liked yours much better too! Wonderful start for Colome thus far, still hurling 95mph strikes through the sixth. I'm guessing he's done, 6 scoreless, wonder what the Bulls record is for that. I brought my "real" camera tonight too and got some decent shots before it got dark.

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    1. Watched last couple of innings at home. Great finish to a really good game.

      If you got a good photo, send it on. If I can use it, I'll put it in tomorrow's post.

      jchriswise@nc.rr.com

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