Monday, September 2, 2013

Terrific Last Game






Season: 87-57
Wrap, Box

This afternoon saw a welcome change for the Bulls. They were hitting the ball in their final regular season game over in Norfolk. Still, they weren’t scoring. That is, not until the 10th when Kevin Kiermaier singled, went to 3B on a Leslie Anderson single, and scored on a Jason Bourgeois single.

Meanwhile Enny Romero, pitching his first game as a Durham Bull,  went eight very solid innings. C.J. Riefenhauser pitched a clean 9th and then Kirby Yates finished out a spectacular season by first giving up a single and then striking out the side for his 20th save.

The win drove a stake through the heart of Norfolk’s playoff bid since Rochester was blowing out Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to take the wild card berth. To be honest, that suits WDBB just fine since the Bulls have had trouble with Norfolk all year and the idea of playing them in a Governors’ Cup final in Norfolk doesn’t really sit to well with us. Here’s hoping I don’t have to eat those words.

Outside the game —
  • Stacy Long over in Montgomery is reporting that three Biscuits are on their way to Durham: Catcher Mayo Acosta, Pitcher Michael Costa, and infielder Shawn O’Malley. Probably won't be on the active roster, but still good news.
  • Looks like Biscuits pitcher Austin Hubbard is a lock for this year’s WDBB Moonlight Graham Award for pitchers. His ⅔ of a inning back on May 17 is the least amount of time for a pitcher in a Bulls uniform. Still checking on the hitters. Likely to be the unfortunate Hak-Ju Lee, who only got to play in 15 games. It does highlight the fact that this year’s position player roster has been fairly stable.

3 comments:

  1. I'm going to argue that a player who is a top prospect and started the season on the Bulls and would have played here all year were it not for injury can't be the Moonlight Graham winner.

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  2. A very good point. The next on the list is catcher Juan Apodaca who played in 29 games and had 97 plate appearances before being released in mid-June. It does speak to the stability of Bulls position players that only 19 were on the roster this year, including rehabbers. That might be fun. Include rehabbing Luke Scott who only had 14 plate appearances. For an extreme comparison, the Indianapolis Indians have had 49 different players come to bat this year! What do you think? Apodaca or Scott or Lee (with an explanation of why so few PAs?

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  3. On second thought, we may not even award the Moonlight Graham to a position player this year. Not sure anyone really fits with the spirit of the award.
    By the way, the 49 different Indians who came to bat included pitchers. Forgot that pitchers bat when two NL franchise teams face each other.

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