Showing posts tagged “Dale Thayer”
Adam Sobsey ·
9 Sep 2009, 8:48 AM ·
1 Comment
Case in point: not long after I went all Heisenberg in yesterday’s playoff preview of the series between the Durham Bulls and the Louisville Bats—cautioning readers about the transitory and frankly inscrutable nature of Triple-A rosters—the Tampa Bay Rays read what I wrote and decided to have a little more fun with us and/or do something to shore up their collapsing bullpen, which wilted again and let down David Price last night. They recalled Dale Thayer (pictured, pre-mustache), and as I was already wondering aloud here the other day, what took them so long? Can Thayer be much worse than what they’re getting from their relief corps lately?
Also, after his great debut on Sunday, Wade Davis has been asked to repeat the performance this coming Saturday at Fenway Park against the Boston Red Sox. I don’t think he’s likely to come back to Durham, either this season or any other. Andy Sonnanstine has been relegated to the bullpen, where he can ply Thayer for mustache grooming tips—even if he doesn’t decide to grow one. A mustache.
A glance at the Durham Bulls’ web site suggests that Travis Wood, not Ben Jukich, is Louisville’s starter tonight. If that’s the case, it means that a pair of 22-year-olds who were both pitching in the Double-A Southern League less than two months ago will be spearheading their respective Triple-A clubs’ playoff runs tonight. With Hellickson and Wood on the mound, you may be seeing two of the new young guns of the big leagues in action this evening.
Finally, for those looking for a little sports crossover, here’s yet another good reason to come to the games tonight and tomorrow: Carolina Hurricanes Erik Cole and Chad LaRose will throw the ceremonial first pitches on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. Unless they’re called up to Tampa.
Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Bulls on the Move, Chad LaRose, crossover, Dale Thayer, Erik Cole, Wade Davis
Adam Sobsey ·
6 Sep 2009, 5:00 AM ·
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DBAP/ DURHAM—Shortly before game time last night, a debate broke out in the press box about the Bulls’ “magic number” for clinching the International League South Division title. The Bulls were two games ahead of Gwinnett going into the game, so it seemed initially that, with three games to play, it would take any combination of Durham wins and Gwinnett losses totaling two to seal the deal.
But others pointed out that, in case of a regular-season tie, the Bulls would, for the purpose of the playoffs, be named the winner by virtue of their better record within the division. (The first tiebreaker, the teams’ head-to-head record, was nullified because the Bulls and Braves were 11-11 in direct competition with one another.) The Braves would be the wild card team. Thus, it was argued, the magic number was really only 1, because a single Bulls win or Gwinnett loss would assure an outcome no worse for the Bulls than the tie they needed.
Someone else countered that a tie is still a tie, and the tiebreaker was merely a latency, a fiction until it had to be actually wielded; and then someone else used the word semantics, kind of grouchily, and in any case it was decided that the score of the Gwinnett Braves’ game versus the Charlotte Knights would occasionally, as the evening progressed, be flashed on the big screen affixed to the Blue Monster.
As it happened, that game began an hour before the Bulls took on the Norfolk Tides, so just as the action as the DBAP was beginning, the out-of-town score went up on the board. It was already 6-1 Charlotte in the third inning down in Georgia.
Cheers from the stands. Then Bulls’ General Manager Mike Birling rendered much of the rest of the debate immaterial by informing us that the champagne was already on ice down in the clubhouse.
And the Bulls made it even less material by beating the Tides, 5-1. It was Durham’s third straight division title, and the team’s in the last 12 years, a truly remarkable run.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Charlie Montoyo, Craig Albernaz, Dale Thayer, F.O.B., Gwinnett Braves, Julio DePaula, Matt Joyce, Norfolk Tides, Rayner Oliveros, Winston Abreu
Adam Sobsey ·
4 Sep 2009, 5:00 AM ·
4 Comments
It has happened twice in the history of major-league baseball. Rennie Stennett of the Pittsburgh Pirates did it in 1975—with someone else’s bat, no less—and Wilbert Robinson did it, too, way back in 1892, when balls were made out of the hides of woolly mammoths and bats from the tusks. Seven hits in a nine-inning game. You probably won’t see this happen again in your lifetime. And you probably aren’t even very old.
Who knows about the International League, which has been around for 126 years? But I’d be willing to bet that Desmond Jennings etched his name into its record books and will stay there for a very long time. He came up seven times last night. He hit six singles and a double.
This is one of those records that requires you to be extraordinarily lucky and very, very good. (In Jennings’s case, being very, very fast didn’t hurt, either.) The beauty of it was that Jennings did it without overswinging: he hit three ground-ball singles up the middle; two more grounders that were knocked down by the shortstop, who was helpless to throw out the speedy Jennings; a solid line-drive to left; and then an opposite-field drive into the gap for a ninth-inning double. “I just went up there hacking,” he is reported to have said. Yeah, sure, Desmond.
It’s a very good thing, in retrospect, that the official scorer at Charlotte’s ballpark had reversed a call earlier, when he charged Knights shortstop Justin Fuller with an error on one of Jennings’s infield grounders. According to Bulls broadcaster Neil Solondz, Fuller had no chance to throw out Jennings. (I believe Solondz’s exact words were “You’ve gotta be kidding me” when the scoreboard flashed E.) A couple of batters later, you could dimly hear the scorer announce the error-to-hit change in the background. Had he not done so then, you’d better believe Bulls manager Charlie Montoyo would have been on the phone to the press box, in high dudgeon, immediately after the game. Fortunately for everyone involved, it didn’t come to that.
Oh: guess how many hits the entire Knights team had? Seven.
Oh, also, before I forget—because, believe it or not, there is so much to report tonight that losing track isn’t unthinkable—the Bulls clinched a playoff spot with a resounding 14-3 win over the Bristol Sox Charlotte Knights.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Bulls on the Move, Button Gwinnett, Calvin Medlock, Charlotte Knights, Chicago White Sox, Dale Thayer, Desmond Jennings, Fernando Perez, Gwinnett Braves, Jason Childers, Joe Bateman, Joe Nelson, Jorge Julio, Justin Ruggiano, Louisville Bats, Rashad Eldridge, record, Reid Brignac, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, Sean Rodriguez, seven hits in a nine inning game, strikeouts, Team USA, Wade Davis
Adam Sobsey ·
26 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
Comment
I had plans last night and stopped listening to the Durham Bulls’ radio broadcast with the Bulls leading Syracuse, 5-0, in the seventh inning. Matt Joyce hit a grand slam in the first inning and Bulls’ starter Jeremy Hellickson was cruising, having allowed just a single baserunner. The Bulls seemed well on their way to an easy win on getaway day.
I should have known better. Hellickson allowed a two-out, three-run homer to Seth Bynum in the bottom of the seventh—long balls are his one obvious weakness so far—and gave the Chiefs life. The Bulls added a run to their lead in the next inning on a passed ball, but not before Syracuse outfielder Justin Maxwell got ejected, the second time he’s been tossed from a game versus the Bulls this year. According to the Syracuse Post-Standard, his ejection had to do with the last out of the seventh inning, on which Maxwell grounded out to third base and protested the call at first. Manager Tim Foli joined him in the dispute and in the clubhouse. Must have been a fun argument to watch. I hope I never make Justin Maxwell mad.
Sometimes ejections light a fire under a team, and in this case Jason Childers had a gasoline can with him when he came on to replace Hellickson in the eighth inning. With a 6-3 Bulls lead, Childers faced four batters and retired none of them. It went: triple, double, single, single, Dale Thayer. Thayer got charged with a blown save when he allowed a game-tying sacrifice fly to Daryle Ward. (This is, by the way, a ridiculous rule. All Thayer did was retire all three men he faced in order, but it’s he, rather than Childers (who put the man on third base), whose stats take a hit.)
Anyway, the Bulls scored three more runs in the top of the ninth. Shawn Riggans had a two-run double and Michel Hernandez added his third sacrifice fly in two days. Winston Abreu, suddenly Sandman again, eliminated a one-out walk with a double play, and this one goes in the win column, 9-6. Deep breath.
The Bulls now have a 3.5-game lead over Syracuse in the wild-card chase. A couple of quick notes follow.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls Dale Thayer, Desmond Jennings, Golgafrincham, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Jason Childers, Jeremy Hellickson, Justin Maxwell, Matt Joyce, RISP, Runners In Scoring Position, Shawn Riggans, telephone sanitizers, Tim Foli, Winston Abreu
Adam Sobsey ·
24 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
1 Comment
The Bulls’ Joe Bateman hit consecutive batters in the ninth inning last night in Syracuse, but it was the Bulls who felt the pain. The Chiefs’ Norris Hopper hit a two-out, game-
winning single to score one of the plunkees, handing the Bulls a 3-2 loss.
So it wasn’t walks that did the Bulls in, but a sort of fast-track walk, the hit batter. And where the Bulls’ clutch hitting tends to abet control problems in losses, last night the lineup didn’t even mount enough threats to set up clutch situations. The Bulls scored twice in the second inning (with help from a pair of, ahem, walks); after that, they had only four baserunners, and just one of those advanced to second base.
Wade Davis did a fine job on the mound for the Bulls, but a Reid Brignac error helped an unearned run score, and Davis gave up a solo homer to (I told you to watch out for) Brad Eldred. Davis’s counterpart, the Chiefs’ Marco Estrada—the same guy who opposed him a couple of weeks ago at the DBAP—was again excellent. He stifled the Bulls on August 8, allowing just a pair of unearned runs on two hits in seven innings; last night, he allowed two runs in six innings, overcoming his second-inning control problems and matching Davis’s results. Charlie Montoyo was reluctant to credit Estrada in the August 8 ballgame, choosing instead to blame his hitters’ approach at the plate. But after Estrada shut Durham down again last night, one has to concede that Estrada himself may have been the reason for his success.
Some curious bullpen management by Montoyo last night: Dale Thayer replaced Davis in the seventh and tossed a pair of scoreless innings, leaving he ninth for Bateman. Usually, it would be Thayer handling the late shift, with Bateman setting him up. There’s definitely a reason for the switch, perhaps Tampa-related, and Bateman has closed out games for Montoyo before; still, it’s a bit of a head-scratcher.
In the Bulls’ official game report, you’ll happen upon a typo: “The Bulls are 1.5 games behind Syracuse in the wild card race and four games in front of Toledo and Norfolk.” The Bulls are actually 1.5 games ahead of the Chiefs, but the mistake reflects some growing pessimism, even inside the organization, about the Bulls’ state of affairs. Although the team is still lined up for a playoff spot, lately they haven’t looked like they’re headed for the post-season. Good games are followed by bad ones, the club’s overall energy rises and falls, and their record over the last three weeks is just 10-12. The Bulls look middling, inconsistent, beatable.
Meanwhile, Gwinnett keeps on winning and now has a four-game lead over Durham in the International League South Division. And the wild-card race is thickening—in the quotation nestled in the paragraph above, careful readers will have spotted Toledo now entering the rear-view mirror (this is not a NASCAR post!), thanks to the Mud Hens’ eight-game winning streak. Make no mistake: if the Bulls coast all the way into Labor Day at a .500 pace, one of the three teams on their tail will overtake them. The law of averages virtually assures it.
A quick note about the roster. Chris Richard had a cortisone shot in his wrist (maybe he and Carlos Hernandez, who also had one recently, can compare notes), and he’s expected back perhaps as early as Monday. In the interest of giving Joe Dillon most of a night off on Sunday, Charlie Montoyo started Henry Mateo at first base, which is something I can’t even picture. Dillon entered the game late when Mateo moved to second to replace Akinori Iwamura, who played a scheduled seven innings. Elliot Johnson (strained quadriceps) is eligible to come off the disabled list, and he has been running and taking batting practice. Look for him to return to action very soon. He’ll give the team a boost. It needs one.
Andy Sonnanstine pitches for the Bulls on Monday night. If the Chiefs’ rotation is still in the same order, his opponent will be Ross Detwiler. Those two faced each other at the DBAP on August 9, and the Bulls shredded Detwiler on their way to giving Sonnanstine an easy 11-5 win.
Baseball, Durham Bulls Brad Eldred, Chris Richard, Dale Thayer, Elliot johnson, injury, Joe Bateman, Marco Estrada, Reid Brignac, Syracuse Chiefs, Wade Davis, wild card
Adam Sobsey ·
22 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
Comment
DBAP/ DURHAM—A long time ago, I studied playwriting. I had a brilliant professor who used to say that the first 20 minutes of a play were “free”: the audience would allow almost anything in those first 20 minutes, as long as whatever you gave them in that extended introduction wound up getting “paid back” to them later on; you were sowing seeds that would ripen as the play progressed. Starcrossed lovers, you say? Better do ‘em in by the end of the play.
In other words, those 20 minutes weren’t really free. You were essentially laying the groundwork for whatever was to come, and as a consequence, the first 20 minutes were the most important part of the script.
My professor was talking about a two-hour play, but baseball games—or at least, Durham Bulls baseball games—last about three hours. So we’re really talking about the first half hour of a game. And it was in the first 30 minutes of last night’s disheartening 4-3 loss to the last-place Charlotte Knights that the Bulls constructed the dramaturgy for how they would lose.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls Akinori Iwamura, Bullpen, Charlie Montoyo, Dale Thayer, Gwinnett Braves, Jason Childers, Jeff Bennett, Josh Fields, Matt Joyce, Norfolk Tides, RISP, Romeo and Juliet, Runners In Scoring Position, Sherry Kramer, Syracuse Chiefs, walks
Adam Sobsey ·
19 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
1 Comment
DBAP/ DURHAM—I missed more than two innings of last night’s 5-2 Bulls win over Charlotte. I spent half an inning in the visitor’s clubhouse as part of the crowded media contingent interviewing the Knights’ Jake Peavy (pictured) following his four-inning, 67-pitch outing against the Bulls, his second rehab start for the Chicago White Sox, and another two innings waiting for that interview. It was much like the game that rehabbing Tampa lefty Scott Kazmir started for the Bulls a couple of months ago, when we were whisked down into the bowels of the DBAP for a mid-game interview with a pitcher.
Both times, I was happy to do this—it’s not every day that you get to talk to one of the dozen or so best active pitchers on planet Earth—but I have to say that I got very antsy in the administrative lobby while watching the ballgame on a television feed as Peavy threw a supplementary bullpen session. All that did was make me wish I was seeing the action firsthand rather than on a screen. I suppose that my reaction means that, for better or worse, I’ve become more interested in the fortunes of the Durham Bulls than I am about pretty much any other baseball being played.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls Akinori Iwamura, Carlos Hernandez, Carlos Torres, Charlie Montoyo, Charlotte Knights, Chicago White Sox, Craig Albernaz, Dale Thayer, Daniel Hudson, Elliot johnson, Fernando Perez, Gwinnett Braves, Henry Mateo, injury, Jake Peavy, Jeff Bennett, Joe Dillon, Jon Weber, Justin Ruggiano, Matt Joyce, RISP, Runners In Scoring Position, Wade Davis
Adam Sobsey ·
16 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
1 Comment
DBAP/ DURHAM—This was one of those games that seemed like it was over early. In the third inning, down 1-0 on Juan Miranda’s second homer in as many nights (and hit to nearly the same place), five consecutive Bulls reached base against Scranton’s Kei Igawa before Igawa recorded an out. All five scored. No one scored again until the eighth, and in the mean time, the Bulls’ 5-1 lead seemed like 15-1.
That was because of Jeremy Hellickson (pictured). The young right-hander, who had beaten the Yankees at Scranton just over two weeks ago with six three-hit, shutout innings, was even better last night. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine him pitching much better against the Yankees’ sluggers. He allowed only two hits, both solo homers. He threw 108 pitches, 72 for strikes, and produced an eye-opening 21 swings-and-misses (11 of which came in his first 33 pitches). Nearly all of those whiffs were on Hellickson’s changeup, which the Yankees never came close to solving. The changeup was so good last night that Hellickson barely even bothered with his curveball, which he threw just a handful of times and which wasn’t very effective. Fastballs and changeups, fastballs and changeups. By the end of Hellickson’s outing, his excellent control had widened home plate umpire Derek Crabill’s strike zone, and the young Iowan was getting called strikes on anything close to the plate and around the knees.
When Hellickson departed, he received the loudest ovation I’ve heard for a player at the DBAP this year. “He earned it,” manager Charlie Montoyo said. And so he did. Reliever Jason Childers came on and nearly blew the game for Hellickson, but Dale Thayer gathered up the live wires Childers left dangling and snuffed them out. The Bulls won, 5-4.
Hellickson’s performance might have been even better had he come out of the game at the logical point. But Montoyo needed more from him, and it cost Hellickson a run—and almost cost the Bulls the game.
Meanwhile, a spaghetti junction of injuries, trades, demotions, slumps and collisions made this an especially busy night in the postgame clubhouse. Many loose ends to tie up, from the game itself and the extra-curricular surroundings. All of that follows. Length advisory.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Akinori Iwamura, Austin Jackson, Carlos Hernandez, Charlie Montoyo, Craig Albernaz, Dale Thayer, Damaso Marte, Desmond Jennings, Elliot johnson, injury, Jason Childers, Jeff Bennett, Jeremy Hellickson, Joe Dillon, John Rodriguez, Juan Miranda, Justin Ruggiano, Kei Igawa, Matt Joyce, Michel Hernandez, New York Yankees, Reegie Corona, Rhyne Hughes, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, Shawn Riggans, Shelley Duncan, Xavier Hernandez, Yurendell de Caster
Adam Sobsey ·
14 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
1 Comment
Leave it to the Bulls to get their only win of this grim series against the Braves by overcoming a two-time major-league All-Star. Rehabbing Atlanta pitcher Tim Hudson wasn’t anything like the victim in last night’s 9-5 Durham win, but he didn’t shut the Bulls down either, permitting five hits and two runs in four innings before departing after reaching what I assume was a predetermined pitch-count limit. The Bulls then sloshed around for a while before finally deciding to unload on Gwinnett closer Luis Valdez, whom they bombarded for six runs in the ninth inning and handed his eighth blown save. Had they lost, the Bulls would have staggered home after a sweep at the hands of the Braves, two games back of the division lead. As it stands, they return just a game back, and coming off another electrifying comeback win. No matter how or when or for how long they struggle, this team never quits. You have to give them credit for that.
A few notes follow.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Bronson Arroyo, Bulls on the Move, Dale Thayer, Gwinnett Braves, Jason Childers, Joe Dillon, Joe Nelson, Jon Weber, Jonny Gomes, Kei Igawa, Luis Valdez, Tim Hudson
Adam Sobsey ·
13 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
1 Comment
That ringing in your ears is the postman at the door, and the Bulls keep neglecting to answer. Actually, check that: the Bulls keep leaving the door open for the Gwinnett Braves, who respond each time by charging through it. For the second straight night, Durham took a one-run lead into the ninth inning; for the second straight night, their closer—Winston Abreu on Tuesday, Dale Thayer on Wednesday—let two runs score. Last night’s version was a 2-1 loss. Thayer had Gwinnett down to its final strike before giving up a game-winning, two-run single to Brandon Jones, who had the game-winning homer off Abreu the previous night.
So much about the tune is familiar. The Bulls left 11 men on base and were 2-13 with runners in scoring position; they had 13 baserunners but scored just a single run. Starter Jason Cromer had another excellent outing (it’s becoming almost routine for him), tossing six scoreless innings but getting no run support, as usual. He’s come away with a no-decision in nearly half his starts, even though all but one have been win-worthy. The first two Bulls to bat in the seventh inning reached on errors (both by Braves reliever Vladimir Nunez), but Reid Brignac botched a sacrifice bunt attempt—or so I gather from the play-by-play game recap—and the Bulls ultimately failed to score. Justin Ruggiano struck out again—nothing new there; he’s second in the league—but this time he went postal on home plate umpire James Thomas and was ejected for arguing balls and strikes (well, really just strikes, since he was probably happy with the balls). That forced Ray Olmedo and his .627 OPS to come in and hit cleanup in Ruggiano’s place. As it happened, Olmedo led off the sixth inning with a double. Jon Weber followed with a walk, but guess what? The Bulls failed to score.
Which is to say: the postman kept ringing, but it was the Bulls who couldn’t deliver, and they returned this victory to sender. The best position they can hope to be in when they return to Durham on Friday is a game behind Gwinnett. If they lose to rehabbing Braves stalwart Tim Hudson on Thursday, they’ll be three games back with North Division leader Scranton/Wilkes-Barre coming to the DBAP for a four-game wraparound weekend series. Yikes.
Meanwhile, more roster moves are in the mail. Details follow.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Akinori Iwamura, Brandon Jones, Bulls on the Move, Chad Bradford, Dale Thayer, ejection, Fernando Perez, Gwinnett Braves, Jason Cromer, Joe Dillon, John Meloan, Justin Ruggiano, Michel Hernandez, Mitch Talbot, Postman Always Rings Twice, R.J. Swindle, RISP, Runners In Scoring Position, Shawn Riggans, Winston Abreu
