Two Pitchers; Two Styles; One Result

Season: 73-69; Home Stand: 1-0
Wrap, Box

I loved this game. Two very different pitchers at work, few mistakes, pure baseball.

The Bulls guy, Bradin Hagens, is a pitch-to-contact guy. By that I mean that the opposing hitters are going to get a chance. And they did last night. But they just mostly hit the ball to Bulls fielders. Hagens did not give up a single walk in his 7 innings and had only one strikeout, the last batter. He even took on some of the fielding work himself with an unassisted putout in the 2nd and fielding two comebackers in the 3rd. Stats geeks will love him as well. His Game Score was 70, one of the best by a Bull all season. To top it off, he is finishing the season with four wins in a row.

The Tides guy, Chris Jones, was a bit more conventional and ended the night with 6 out of 7 innings of solid pitching, including 7 K’s with his 1 walk.

If not for the 1st inning, things could have been 0-0 when both pitchers left the game. But the 1st was enough. Rehabbing Steven Sousa (broken hand) was dh-ing and batting second. He got a hit. Taylor Motter walked. Sousa scored on a Corey Brown single. Motter scored on a Cameron Seitzer single. And that was essentially it for the rest of the game.

Yes, reliever Robert Zarate provided some thrills in the 9th. But a little cardio work is good after you’ve been sitting all that time.

I’m liking two of the new guys a lot. The first, who’s been here a while, is Joey Rickard. Quick hands at bat. Good in the outfield. Have not seen his arm tested yet. The second is recent arrival Cameron Seitzer, who appears to be a real pro at first base, in spite of last night’s E, and a decent left handed bat.

With this win (actually with Friday’s win) the Bulls are sure to finish the season above .500. Good news.

The Bulls set a new season attendance record with well over a half a million fans through the gates.

Outside the game —

• Hak-Ju Lee passed through waivers and has been assigned to the Bulls. At a guess he will be in uniform either tonight or tomorrow. Not sure of the rules.
• Gwinnett lost to Charlotte last night, but neither the South Division championship nor third place in the division is set. Nor has the West Division championship been decided. Standings.

Back Above .500

 Wrap, Box

Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

 

Season: 69-68; Home Stand: 3-2
Games Remaining: 7; Home Games: 4
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

The last two of these games kept the Bulls within reach of a respectable .500 season. They did get eliminated from the wild card, but that was a bridge far, far, too far. And the Bulls’ win last night certainly put that out of reach for Gwinnett.

From now on expect chaos in the lineups. From our point of view we are likely to find the candidates for this year’s Moonlight Graham awards. The awards were not granted in 2014 for reasons that escape me at the moment, surely a good reason, though. Leading candidates at the moment are: Infielder Juniel Querecuto (4 games back in late May, 12 plate appearances) and pitcher Kyle Winkler (3 appearances in mid-June, 3 innings).

As mentioned earlier today, 6 Bulls have been called up and, so far, only one replacement has been announced, veteran José Constanza. We’ll see what happens next.

Meanwhile, let’s make note of the work of Bradin Hagens last night. His post All-Star performance had been something of a disaster. In his first six starts after the break he had 5 losses and a no-decision. However, on August 20 he had a nice 5 inning start and a win; on Aug 26 he had another good start and went 6⅔ in a win; and then last night he went another 6⅔ for another win. So something is on track and he has made a big difference as the Bulls crawled out of that 7 games below .500 hole they’d been in.

So now (and this weekend) is the time just to go out to the park and take a look at next year’s players.

Seven!

Wrap, Box, Virginian-Pilot

Season: 66-66; Trip: 2-0
Wrap, Box

The Bulls reached .500 for the first time in almost exactly a month (July 26) with their seventh win in a row, the longest streak of the year. On game six of the run, Tuesday night, Joey Butler broke it open in the 11th inning, and he had a lot to do with Wednesday afternoon's win. Names we’ve grown to love this last week looked terrific, Taylor Motter, Richie Shaffer, and Butler all had hits in the 11th and Hak-Ju Lee brought in the third run with a sacrifice fly, a run it turned out the Bulls would need as Kirby Yates made the bottom of the 11th a bit more thrilling than necessary.

Then yesterday Joey Butler was at it again, this time with two home runs in support of Bradin Hagens. Along with Mikie Mahtook’s 4 for 5 day at the plate, a timely sacrifice fly by Taylor Motter, and a disruptive stolen base by Lee.

Both games were also bit unusual for Jared Sandberg’s tactics or, rather, his use of some traditional tactics he seems to have avoided this season.

For example, he has only called for 8 intentional bases on balls all season. He did so in the bottom of the 9th on Tuesday and it worked.

Similarly, he has not been a big fan of pinch-hitting, but yesterday in the critical 7th inning, when the Bulls were behind 3-4, he put Nick Franklin in to bat for catcher Mayo Acosta. Hak-Ju Lee had singled with one out and Acosta has a dismal batting average. A few pitches into the at bat Lee stole second base and Franklin then drew a walk (note that the Tides’ catcher set up well off the plate for a 3-1 pitch so it was an unintentional, intentional in hopes of getting a double play). When Mikie Mahtook hit a double to bring in Lee and Franklin and the winning runs, Sandberg looked like master tactician.

Pitching? Blake Snell was terrific on Tuesday and Bradin Hagens got his second win in a row, getting past two important errors by Bulls fielders.

Outside the game —

• J.P. Arencibia went up to the Rays! Congratulations. It turns out that his recent time behind the plate with the Bulls will serve him well. See this link for more than you probably want to know about how they pulled off the roster moves.
• Desmond Jennings is hurt, again. That opens the door for any number of Bulls on the 40-man, to include Joey Butler, Mickie Mahtook, or Richie Shaffer

About these seven wins and the next 12 games —

This has been a remarkable run. The team ERA dropped from 3.99 to 3.90 (with 132 games played, it takes a lot to move the averages that much). The starters went from 3.92 to 3.88, while the relief crew outdid themselves with a drop from 4.09 to 3.93. The hitters moved the team seasonal wOBA from .317 to .321 over the seven games. That may not seem like much, but, again, at this point in the season that’s a big move. The team wOBA hasn’t been that high since July 22. The last time the team pitching has been in this range was back on July 16th.

The rest of the Bulls dozen games are against South Division opponents and 9 of their final 12 games are at home. The Bulls start with Charlotte, have a couple of games against Gwinnett, a few more with Charlotte, and end up with Norfolk. Recently Norfolk has fallen off its terrific run to the top and Gwinnett, which had been making quite an attempt, has also fallen off. With roster turmoil coming for all four teams, who knows what the future holds. For the time being, let’s celebrate a return to .500 baseball.

More Fun at the DBAP

Season: 61-66; Home Stand: 2-0
Games Left in Season: 17; Home Games: 12
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

The hitters just kept hitting.

Everyone, except Hak-Ju Lee, got a hit. Mikie Mahtook had what may have been his best night of the year with a double and three singles. After twice getting cheated of a home run, once at the DBAP and once in Indianapolis, J.P. Arencibia got his 21st of the year over the Monster. Arencibia is the leading home run hitter in the International League. Taylor Motter got a double, his 36th, and he leads the International League in doubles.

Bradin Hagens, who had accumulated five losses and a no-decision since the All-Star break, was the beneficiary, although he did just fine on his own. He gave up just 1 run in his five innings. Robert Zarate had a much, much better inning than the awful oddity he had in Louisville the night before last (1 hit, 2 walks, 2 hit batsmen, 3 earned runs, 3 Ks). A clean three up, three down.

New guy Parker Markel arrived from Montgomery and pitched a clean 9th. It was the AAA debut of the 24-year old. He has 53 relief innings in 42 games with the Biscuits and a 3.23 ERA.

Outside the game —

• Markel was the only transaction reported yesterday. But with former Bull Jake McGee going on the DL for the Rays, we’d have to guess that there will be some more shuffling soon. One source is reporting that it’s Enny Romero.
• We’ve mentioned Matt Buschmann a lot the last couple of years. Local baseball writer Adam Sobsey did a fine background piece on him in a recent Grantland issue. Buschmann was recently seen at the DBAP coaching first base for the Louisville Bats and then, after a trade, on the mound for the Norfolk Tides. 
• A complete game, 1-hit shutout is a big, big deal. Congrats to former Bull Chris Archer. Stories here and here.

September in August

 

Wrap, Box, Virginian-Pilot

Season: 56-61; Trip: 0-2

Wrap, Box, Virginian-Pilot

Let me preface this rant with the usual caveat that I am far from being an expert on baseball or minor league baseball. I’m just a guy who follows the Durham Bulls.

It seems to me that the Bulls parent club, the Tampa Bay Rays, has given up on the Durham Bulls. To some extent that’s been true much of the year — we’ll some day get to the puzzle of hiring a bunch of players on opt out contracts at the beginning of the season — but these two games sure look like the Rays don’t really care if the Bulls win or lose.

Take Monday’s game, for example. The starting pitcher was Bradin Hagens who was last seen in a one-inning relief stint on August 8 (following Matt Moore’s 6 innings and Andrew Bellatti’s 1 inning). Hagens has been a starter with the Bulls since his return to the team in early July. Not very successful, 1 win and 4 losses, but his numbers are OK: ERA-3.12, FIP-3.35, WHIP-1.04, Average Game Score - 55. Still, you have to think that going from starter to reliever and back to starting is difficult and not to be done if your concern is winning games.

He was followed in that game by Dylan Floro in his first appearance this year as a reliever, after 22 appearances as a starter. Granted, Floro hasn’t been all that impressive this year; however, the events that seem to be dragging down his numbers are one-inning blowups. So are the Rays betting that if he’s a reliever he has a better chance of helping the Rays? Guess so. Not on Monday. On Monday he gave up 2 runs on 3 hits in his one inning. Hagens took the loss with his 3 runs on 5 hits over 5 innings.

Then we have last night’s game. Yes, the Tides are hot and their pitcher, Elih Villanueva, was superb, and the Tides did pull off a rare triple play. But the Bulls were handicapped by their starting pitcher, rehabbing Drew Smyly, who in his three starts as a Bull has done the team no favors (he’s given up 10 runs in 10.2 innings), last night being part of a package as he gave up 2 earned runs over 4 innings. Who was in relief? The Bulls best remaining starting pitcher, Scott Diamond. Since the All-Star break Diamond has had two starts and 3 long relief appearances. He cleaned up the debris left by Drew Smyly on July 26, actually got a win after another housekeeping follow-up to Smyly on Aug 8. We have to note that his two starts were not very effective.

Our larger point is that it certainly appears that the last consideration by the folks down in St. Petersburg is what impact their dictates might have on winning a baseball game.

Traditionally, followers of AAA baseball teams expect that the games of September will be those where we get a look at who’s had a good year in AA and who among our favorites might get a callup. Bulls fans, of course, spend the early part of September worrying about who is going to be available for the playoffs. 

But in August? We simply aren’t used to being so painfully a part of the day-to-day struggles of the parent team. Undoubtedly, once the players get between the lines on any given night they are playing to win. But you have to think that sometimes they are doing it handicapped by the uncertainty floating up from Florida. 

Bats Muffled

Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

Season: 55-58; Home Stand: 3-5

Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

This was possibly the best all-around Bulls game of the year. The run differential of 9 runs was, by a couple of runs, the biggest of the year. The 16 hits and 8 walks were part of a team OPS of 1.064, 300 points above the IL average of .717. Matt Moore and 3 relievers held the Bats to just 3 hits, 2 walks, and 1 run with 11 K’s. 

It was a rainy night in Durham. I watched on TV and noticed all the fans huddled under their umbrellas. Ground balls in the outfield spun up rooster-tails as they ran over the grass. One long ball to the right field wall didn’t bounce, it just died on the warning track. Several times the grounds crew was out with Diamond-Dry for the mound and batter’s box (trivia question of the day: What is Diamond-Dry made from?). Batters were constantly wiping their bats down between pitches (How could that possibly do any good, I thought. Maybe?)

Every Bull got a hit, except for Hak-Ju Lee. However, Lee got an RBI on a bases-loaded walk in the the 1st inning. Mikie Mahtook is back and batted leadoff. He started with a single and followed up with a 3-run homer in the 6th. He looked more comfortable at the plate than I’ve seen him all year. New guy Joey Rickard is making the most of his time in AAA. He was 4 for 6 and is hitting .444 so far. Taylor Motter was 4 for 5 in one of his best games of the year. Luke Maile got back up above the Mendoza Line.

Meanwhile, the newest Bull is Rays star left-hander Matt Moore. He has been sent down to sort out his recovery from surgery and, after some real troubles with the Rays last month, he gave the Bats a tutorial on big league pitching. He may not yet be back to his best fastball, but his off-speed stuff was nasty. Indeed, he had four perfect innings before a couple of singles got through in the 5th. The rest of the inning was ground outs (with one walk), but a run got across. The 6th was 3 up, 3 drown. 

He was followed by Andrew Bellatti, not seen for quite a while. He K’d the side. Then Bradin Hagens for his first appearance as a reliever in this trip to AAA. He gave up a single before getting the next three batter out. José Dominguez walked one, but he was double up and a ground out finished the game.

Bulls-Bats games over the years have often been fun to watch. The Reds have a good system and, usually, manage their guys well. 

Slide Continues

Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

Season: 52-56; Home Stand: 0-3
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

The Durham Bulls slid deeper into the cellar of the International League South Division with last night’s shutout. Bradin Hagens had a decent start, but it’s hard to win without any run support. And then Everett Teaford, who has had a tough time of it since being sent down from Tampa Bay (10 earned runs in 6⅔ innings — ERA 13.5) had three runs scored on him (1 earned). Which brings up the problem of stone hands/rubber arms: the Bulls have committed 15 errors in the last 5 games.

Nonetheless, it was interesting to see J.P. Arencibia start the game as the Bulls' catcher. That has not happened much this year. Richie Shaffer started at first base, but got pulled from the game (apparently as a call-up to the Rays). Arencibia took off the gear and went to first. Mayo Acosta got to make a rare appearance as catcher.

Jared Sandberg got tossed from the game after a Boog Powell pickoff. Guess he couldn’t see the play on TV re-run. It was a good call by the ump (if that’s what he was arguing about). Powell also got caught attempting to steal and made a throwing error. Not a good day for the youngster.

Speaking of stolen bases, one of the few Bulls strengths this year. They have not stolen a base in the last six games. That might, however, simply indicate a respect for Braves catcher Christian Bethancourt’s arm.

Outside the game —

• Let me put in a bit of skepticism regarding the Richie Shaffer call-up. Don’t get me wrong, I really like him and he has been a very exciting guy to watch (even though he seems to do better on the road than at home). Nevertheless, it’s worth pointing out that IL pitchers may have figured something out about him. He’s .241 over the last 10 games and has just one home run. 
• Mikie Mahtook went up to the Rays; came back and put on a Bulls uniform for one game; and went back to the Rays (0-4 last night).
• Grady Sizemore is up with the Rays.
• Joey Rickard, a 24 year-old outfielder with the Montgomery Biscuits, has been called up to the Bulls. He has some very nice numbers with the Biscuits. And seems to be fast (19 stolen bases and 6 triples — I take a triple to be more a measure of speed than of power). Also looks like he crowds the plate a bit. He’s accumulated 40 hits by pitch in his 4 seasons of pro ball (just 5 this year, though). [stats]
• Matt Moore has been optioned to the Bulls. I like watching him pitch. He’s working hard to come back from Tommy John surgery and didn’t do well with the Rays after his two (also not very good) rehab starts here in late June. Yeah, he’s not likely to really help the Bulls, but at this point WDBB is starting to focus on individual performance anyhow. We get a chance to see a great pitcher work on his comeback. He probably should have stayed here for a couple more games anyhow.
• Another rehabber, Drew Smyly, may also be coming back for a start soon.
• The N&O has a feature article on new guy Blake Snell. He should start the next day or so.
• Today: Indianapolis Indians (Pittsburgh Pirates). First place in IL West. ERA - #5; Hitting (OPS) - #9.

The Slide

click on chart for larger image

Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom

Season: 46-41; Trip: 2-1
Wrap, Box, Charlotte Observer

It was a quiet night in Charlotte last night … until the 6th inning. Up to then young Bradin Hagens had done a fine job and held the Knights to just one run. Hard to do in that new, but very hitter-friendly, park of theirs. Then it got interesting as the Bulls (and the Knights) started channeling the old John Lee Hooker song, “Boom, Boom”. (Don't know the song? You've missed something. Check out Mr. Hooker below.)

Richie Shaffer and Cory Brown hit back-to-back home runs in the 6th. In the 7th, after Taylor Motter double home Hak-Ju Lee and Tim Beckham, the Bulls went back to back again when J.P Arencibia homered and Richie Shaffer (again) homered in three more runs.

The Knights brought in five runs on small ball (and ineffective Bulls relief pitching) in their part of the 8th and the Bulls answered with some small ball of their own in the 9th.

It got scary in the bottom of the 9th when you’d think things were well in hand with a 10-6 lead. But the Knights were listening to the same song, I guess, because they led off with back-to-back home runs before Kirby Yates got back in control.

All-in-all an impressive night for Bulls hitters and Mr. Hagens. Not so much for the Bulls relief crew, who had been stretched out on Tuesday. None of the three who followed Hagens were on their game, but José Dominguez in particular has not been on his game all year. Not sure why he remains on the Rays 40-man. He’s averaged less than an inning per outing as a Bull (14 appearances, 10 innings) and has little to show for it (ERA-7.20, WHIP-2.30, FIP-4.80). He had some good outings with the Rays back in mid-April, but he has not brought much to Durham.

Richie Shaffer wowed the home town crowd with a 4 for 4 outing (and an intentional walk in the 9th). Charlotte was where he spent the winter putting on a lot of muscle with obvious results. In his brief time in the IL so far he’s hit 14 home runs and is tied at #2 for the entire year (teammates J.P. Arencibia and Corey Brown are tied for first with 15).

Outside the game —

• Dan Johnson is back in the bigs. Long time WDBB favorite, Dan Johnson is up in the majors as a first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals. Durham writer Adam Sobsey has a nice piece on his return in yesterday’s Grantland. DJ  was high on our all-time hitters list for his performance over three seasons as a Bull (2008, 2010, and 2011). This year he started with the Louisville Bats in the Reds system then free-agented over to the the Cardinals system and the Memphis Redbirds. Good luck, Dan.

About those relievers —

Last time we looked it was the starters to had us worried. Now the bullpen trend is very worrisome.

click on chart

Capacity Crowd; Relievers Ragged

A, Mostly, Fun Fourth

Our Heaven Born BannerPatriotic print based on Frederic Edwin Church's small oil painting "Our Banner in the Sky"

Season: 43-39; Home Stand: 0-1
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

Yet another flurry of transactions led to right-hander Bradin Hagens starting the game in front of a record DBAP crowd. Hagins had a couple of starts at AAA last year in Reno for the Diamondback franchise. He was up from Montgomery a couple of weeks ago for a couple of innings in relief, then he went back. He did just fine (Game Score = 62). Plus he got home runs from Richie Shaffer, Taylor Motter, and J.P. Arencibia before he left the game after five innings.

After all our complaining about the starting pitching over the last few weeks it’s odd to be pointing out how poorly the bullpen did last night. After Hagens shut out the Tides for five innings, four relievers gave up five runs on 10 hits. In just one game the relievers’ ERA for the season went from 3.39 to 3.49, the worst it’s been since the very beginning of the year. Led off by José Dominguez, who gave up 2 runs in the 6th (and left two on base), each following pitcher gave up a run until in the 9th the winning run came across. Meanwhile the Bulls were baffled by a knuckleballer (Eddie Gamboa) and held runless for the rest of the game.

Too bad, because early in the game we were also treated to some wonderful defensive play including a 1B (Arencibia) to 3B (Shaffer) that cut down a lead runner in the 3rd; a perfect Maile to Franklin caught stealing; and near-perfect Boog Powell (left field) to Luke Maile at home. Unfortunately, the runner was in the way and he got nipped by the ball, so the throw ended up counting as an error (something not right about that, it seems).

Dylan Floro is up this afternoon. He has not done well in his last four games. Maybe today?

Rosterification —

The changes are just relentless. Just for the record

• The aforementioned Bradin Hagens is up from Montgomery.
• Pitcher Everett Teaford has gone to Tampa Bay
• Reliever Andy Oliver has opted out of his contract and gone for free agency. Decent job for the Bulls. 25 games, 28 innings, 5 holds, 1 save. He got the win over in Norfolk Friday. Maybe he wanted to go out on a high note? More likely watching all those guys going back and forth to St. Petersburg started working on his head.
• Jordan Norberto was moved to the “temporarily inactive” list. Have no idea what that means.
• C.J. Riefenhauser is on his way back from Tampa Bay
• Kirby Yates is back from Tampa Bay
• Infielder (1B) Marc Krause’s status was changed from being optioned to Durham to a Designated for Assignment, meaning he will come off the 40-man (and could possibly by claimed). That was to make room for Teaford.
• Reliever Ronald Belisario opted for free agency rather than come back to Durham.

Good-Bye Columbus

Game 71, Sunday, 21 June	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Columbus Clippers (Indians)	1	0	0	2	0	1	1	0	0	5	12	0
Durham Bulls (Rays)	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	5	0

Season: 39-32; Home Stand: 0-4
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

I have enormous respect for Matt Moore. Before his surgery I thought he was one of the best pitchers in the game and I certainly hope that he continues on his path to a full recovery.

I also hope that he will forgive this mild rant about yesterday’s game. You see, I thought that a Bulls win would have been nice. And I thought that showing at least a bit of respect for Bulls tradition by wearing a full Bulls uniform would have been nice. I understand that it’s the norm for rehabbing major leaguers to wear their long pants, and bat wearing their major leaguer helmets. But there’s at least one fan that doesn’t like it and thinks that it’s simply a form of showing off. Especially when the rehabber is focused on his rehab and not helping the Bulls win a game. Take this quote from Moore after the game (from the Herald-Sun link above):

“The changeup is still a pitch that is coming around,” Moore said. “Still testing waters with it a little bit. I had some good swing and misses with it. Had a pop up with it. But its’ still one of the things that maybe in another situation and the game is bigger I may not throw that lefty-lefty change up there. I may go with another pitch because the changeup isn’t typically my strength. But they want me to get some work on it and he took care of it.”

To summarize, Moore gave up three runs (two homers) and took the loss. Rays fans are probably happy. Bulls fans (at least one of them) are not. I think it would have been nice for him to mention that his mistakes helped lose the game. (Note: maybe he did and the Herald-Sun left it out. If so, my apologies. But that line, ...'and the game is bigger...', struck me the wrong way.)

New guy Ernesto Frieri made his first appearance with the Bulls. He’s been on the roster for a couple of weeks. He last pitched for the Rays on June 1, so we could have expected some rust. And that’s what we saw. He has almost 300 appearances as a major leaguer and at 29 he probably still has some gas in the tank. Let’s hope he figures out what he needs to figure out while he's with the Bulls and helps the team. Stats.

When Frieri came off the DL yesterday, Bradin Hagens was sent back to Montgomery. He is tied with his Montgomery teammates Kyle Winkler and Leonardo Reginatto for the least number of innings pitched by a Bulls this year (3) — that’s assuming Mr. Frieri does not go back on the DL.

Former Bull Matt Buschmann pitched 7 innings and took a win for the Louisville Bats yesterday. Guess that means he might be coming back to the DBAP, in a different uniform. Box.

Two home runs, by Corey Brown and Luke Maile, were all the scoring yesterday. Columbus pitching simply dominated the Bulls. In the last three games Bulls hitters struck out 42 times. It’s a mostly ugly hitting picture in recent days. Pleased to see them leave town and we hope the Bulls take advantage of their day off.

www.watchingdurhambullsbaseball.com

Mystery Pitchers; Bad Luck Ending

Season: 39-31; Home Stand: 0-3
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

Starting pitcher last night was Robert Zarate. He did 4 innings. He was followed by Bradin Hagens for 3 innings. Who? Followed by whom?

Welcome to the 2015 Durham Bulls! Even with the diligent efforts of the front office, even with a program, it’s hard to keep track of the players on this year’s team. For that matter, even if you wear your radio at the park, sometimes they don’t know much about the players. So you just have to kind of figure it out on your own.

Zarate showed up a few days ago and pitched in relief in a couple of road games. Not much history available. Stats. But he looked pretty darned good last night. He only let one run in on his 61 pitches, several of which were in the high 90’s. I think he’s going to be fun to watch. He left with the game tied at 1-1.

Bradin Hagens just came up from Montgomery, where he was doing OK. Stats. He also did just fine. When he left the game was 2-2.

So it looks like the Rays have not done the Bulls too much harm in this round of moves.

Can’t say as much about this umpiring crew. So far they’ve called 10 Bulls games this year and they are not the best of the bunch. But it was a hot night and maybe, just maybe, the home plate ump could justify what was a bit of exuberant bat-tossing by both teams that led to two ejections. On the other hand, they really did miss the call on Cory Brown at second base and that really did make a difference.

Meanwhile, a bit of tactical trivia that also made a difference. Bulls managers have historically been very reluctant to call for intentional bases on balls. So far in 2015 manager Jared Sandberg has only asked for 6 in four games. The Bulls lost every one of those games.

Take last night. Top of the 10th. Game tied. Runner on second base. No outs. Jhan Marinez K’d a batter. Got a ground out (runner went  to 3B). Then told to intentionally walk Columbus’ Jesus Aguilar, who had 2 hits and 2 K’s on the night. Next batter hit a home run and Clippers were ahead 5-2.

The Bulls could not catch up. However, Third Baseman J.P. Arencibia hit his 11th home run and the Bulls did get within reach. Note: Vince Belnome started at 3B, but got thrown out of the game for throwing his bat after a called third strike in the 5th.

Outside the game —

• Former Bull, and Tampa Bay ace, Matt Moore is scheduled to start this afternoon. High hopes that he does well down in the bay area. Here too. Possibly the best pitcher we’ve had the opportunity to see here.

In the Wings —

• Over with the Montgomery Biscuits, Leonardo Reginatto started at 3B, then shifted over to pitch in the 15th(!) inning. He gave up a home run in a 1-0 loss. Juniel Querecuto was 0 for 5 at shortstop. Bryce Stowell pitched the 13th and 14th innings. Box. 

Standings

With the loss, the Charlotte Knights moved ahead of the Bulls in the International League South Division. This is a very competitive bunch of teams this year.

Before the Rain

Season: 39-29; Home Stand: 0-1
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

According to Brook Pryor over at the Herald-Sun, Dylan Floro’s problem was that his two-seam fastball wasn’t working and he didn’t switch to his four-seamer soon enough. Well, something sure happened in the first two innings and that makes as good a sense as anything else. In the meantime, Columbus’ Michael Roth was doing a very good job of keeping the Bulls in check.

One of those games where it was OK to see the storm coming.

New to me was to see manager Sandberg staying in the dugout when the Bulls were at bat. Hitting coach Dave Myers took 3B and infielder Vince Belnome took 1B.

Roster summary —

• Matt Buschmann took his opt out and we have not heard if he has signed with anyone else yet.
• Ronald Belisario got added to the Tampa Bay roster.
• Catcher Bobby Wilson “accepted the assignment” from the Rays to the Bulls. Saw him in the dugout last night.
• Catcher Mayo Acosta was taken off the roster, but was seen in the bullpen.
• Pitcher Ernesto Frieri, who’d been sent down from Tampa Bay, is on the disabled list.
• Pitcher Bradin Hagens was called up from the Biscuits. He’s got some interesting stats. No word on whether he is to be a starter or reliever. He’s done both at Montgomery this year.