Week 10: Great Home Stand

 

The Durham Bulls had a stellar home stand last week. They won 6 out of 7 games against the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp and moved up into a tie for second place. Standings.

Sad to say, that success does not actually mean all that much given the bizarre approach to "championship" chosen for the International League by Major League Baseball. The Bulls only have 18 (or so, not really sure) games left in the first half of the season and they are 7 games behind the Norfolk Tides. The Tides are not waiting for any of the teams chasing them. The Bulls may be 8-2 in their last 10 games, as are the St Paul Saints, but the Norfolk Tides are 7-3 and still looking very, very good. After the first half, it's a reset. The 20 teams start over for the second half. How weird is that? And why are they doing it?

Still, let's celebrate the pitching we saw last week and the ticking upwards of the Bulls' stats in all major categories. If the Bulls are far from the top in hitting (13th in OPS), their pitching is doing just fine.

6/5: Week 10		Change
OPS	.778	+.007
ERA	4.38	-.38
WHIP	1.39	.06
uERA	.628	-0.15
Run Diff	17	+21

The Bulls are in Memphis, Tennessee this week. The matchup is quite close. The Redbirds have not had quite the roster turmoil of the Bulls, which may give them an edge. 

Matchup: Bulls vs Redbirds, June 6, 2023
As of June 6, 2023	W-L	Rk	RDiff	OPS	ERA	WHIP	uERA
Durham Bulls (Rays)	33-24	2	17	.781	4.38	1.39	0.63
Memphis Redbirds (Cardinals)	31-26	5	43	.783	4.44	1.51	0.64
RDiff-Run differential;  Rk - Rank in International League; WHIP - Walks/Hits per Inning; uERA-unearned runs per 9 innings