Showing posts tagged “Heath Rollins”
Adam Sobsey ·
22 Sep 2009, 12:00 AM ·
4 Comments
You can still watch a few highlights of the Bulls’ dramatic championship-clinching win over Scranton/ Wilkes-Barre on the team Web site. Those clips drive home (so to speak) just how crazy the last inning really was. Justin Ruggiano’s diving catch of Reegie Corona’s sinking slice down the left-field line was not only great per se; it also saved the game, because the ball was ruled fair (but was it fair?) by the umpire. At the end of that play, though, second baseman Ray Olmedo made a poor relay throw to first base in an attempt to turn a game-ending double play, a throw he shouldn’t have attempted at all under the circumstances. He was fortunate that after the ball sailed well to the left of first baseman Joe Dillon, it bounced straight off the railing where it was picked up by pitcher Julio DePaula, who was properly backing up the play and made a quick recovery of the ball in foul territory.
To top things off, DePaula himself nearly blew the game, catastrophically, on the very last play: Doug Bernier’s bouncer back to the mound was easy enough for DePaula to field, and you could understand his excitement in running the ball all the way to first base himself rather than make an easy toss to Dillon. But DePaula decided to make a big puddle-jump onto the bag, and the hop-step he indulged in slowed him down so much that Bernier, hustling all the way, nearly beat DePaula to first base. As it was, DePaula won the race by about three quarters of a step, but it was a scarily close play. Had Bernier been safe due to DePaula’s grasshopper insouciance, the game would have been tied. As it was, the Bulls are champions. (Champions! It’s really extraordinary, when you think about it, after all that.)
A few more notes follow on the game, the season, and the final ballgame to come. If you’re deplaning here, one thing to take away with you: Tyler’s, the pub/eatery right by the DBAP, is hosting a viewing party (the game will be televised nationally on ESPN 2) of Tuesday night’s Triple-A championship game between the Bulls and the Memphis Redbirds, an affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals and winner of the Pacific Coast League. Game time is 7:00 p.m. and it will be a lot of fun to watch it right by the ballpark, surrounded by Bulls fans, in a place that serves something like 712 different beers. Come on out, and do drop by my table to say hello, to buy me a beer or to pour one over my head. I’ll be the guy with black (going gray) hair, the black button-down shirt, the blue jeans, the bandanna, and Heather.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls Allen Craig, Calvin Medlock, championship, David Freese, Desmond Jennings, Governor's Cup, Heath Rollins, Jaime Garcia, Jeremy Hellickson, John Jaso, John Rodriguez, Juan Miranda, Julio DePaula, Justin Hoffpauir, Justin Ruggiano, Memphis Redbirds, playoffs, Ray Olmedo, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, Triple-A championship, Tyler Greene
Adam Sobsey ·
13 Sep 2009, 5:00 AM ·
1 Comment
We got the slugfest we were due for, and the Bulls’ first homer of the series as well (by Michel Hernandez, of all people—his first as a Bull this year and his second overall); but the Bats lived up to their name and outhit Durham, 10-7, on Saturday night. The win forced a fifth and final game of the divisional series.
Both starters fared poorly—Durham’s Rayner Oliveros and Louisville’s Tom Cochran were gone by the third inning, having allowed 11 runs between them in just 3 1/3 innings combined. The difference in the game was probably the two guys who followed them. The Bulls’ Heath Rollins allowed three runs on four hits, including Danny Dorn’s sixth-inning home run, in 4 2/3 innings; by contrast, the Bats’ Lee Tabor threw four scoreless innings of two-hit ball in relief of Cochran. By the seventh inning, it was 8-6, Louisville.
The Bulls mounted rallies late, but they managed only one run during the seventh and eighth innings, when they had two hits and two walks, plus a pair of errors on Louisville pitchers to help move runners around the diamond. The final Durham reliever, Mike Wlodarczyk, surrendered two more runs to Louisville in the eighth to provide the final three-run margin.
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Baseball, Carolina Mudcats, Durham Bulls Camilo Vazquez, Heath Rollins, Lee Tabor, Logan Ondrusek, Louisville Bats, Michel Hernandez, Mike Wlodarczyk, Paul Phillips, Rayner Oliveros, Tom Cochran
Adam Sobsey ·
5 Sep 2009, 5:00 AM ·
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In his last 15 innings, Jeremy Hellickson has allowed four hits and zero runs, with 21 strikeouts and two walks. In his last outing, a 4-0 win over Gwinnett at the DBAP, he took a no-hitter into the sixth inning. In the first inning of last night’s 4-1 victory, he allowed a two-out double to Stefan Gartrell, then retired the next 16 hitters he faced. Thus Hellickson has no-hit each of his last two opponents for 5 1/3 innings. He left last night after seven shutout innings. He’s currently the hottest pitcher in the minor leagues, according to Baseball America, and the No. 2 prospect overall. (Notice who’s No. 1.)
The Bulls did nothing special at the plate last night, stranding 12 and going 3-14 with runners in scoring position. A night after his record-making 7-7 performance, Desmond Jennings went 0-5. The 1-2-3 hitters in the order for Durham were hitless in 15 plate appearances, with a pair of walks. The Bulls struck out 10 more times.
But it didn’t matter: Hellickson was awesome, and Charlotte is officially terrible now. The Knights scored their only run when Brady Shoemaker hit newly called-up Heath Rollins’s first pitch of the eighth inning for a solo homer. Rollins put another man on, and then Charlie Montoyo called in his executioner, Winston Abreu. Abreu struck out Keith Ginter to end the inning, but he broke his 11-inning hitless streak in the bottom of the ninth when he allowed a leadoff single to Gartrell. (If what we saw during Gartrell’s late-season promotion heralds things to come, watch out for him in 2010.) Abreu walked Mike Restovich, bringing the tying run to the plate in the form of Wilson Betemit. But Betemit rolled into a 3-6-3 double play to hose down the threat, doused for good when Abreu went back to his bag of clubs and pulled out another K-wood on Justin Knoedler. It was the last home game of Charlotte’s dreary season. They did fireworks at Knights Stadium anyway.
And there will be fireworks at the DBAP on Saturday night. If the Bulls beat Norfolk behind Rayner Oliveros, those pyrotechnics will be authentically celebratory: one more win will clinch the division title for Durham. Be there. First pitch is at 7:05 p.m.
Baseball, Durham Bulls Charlotte Knights, Heath Rollins, Jeremy Hellickson, Stefan Gartrell, Winston Abreu
Adam Sobsey ·
2 Sep 2009, 3:00 AM ·
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DBAP/ DURHAM—First things first: the “mystery” fifth Bull promoted to Tampa was none other than last night’s starter, Wade Davis, Charlie Montoyo said after the Durham Bulls’ 10-2 loss to Gwinnett. You can finally get some sleep! You can also rest assured that Davis’s promotion had nothing to do with his performance last night, probably his worst of the season. Davis had trouble finding the strike zone for the first three innings, throwing just half of his pitches for strikes. Then, when he did find it, his strikes got hit in the fourth inning, culminating in a disputed grand slam home run by Alvin Colina (more on the dispute later). Davis came out of the game one batter later, having reached a workload limit imposed by the Tampa Bay brass, who want him fresh for his first start as a Ray, which rumor has it will take place in a doubleheader scheduled for Labor Day in a place called [ruffles through papers] Yankee Stadium, which I understand is in one of the outer boroughs of New York City. Congrats to Davis: he’s shown himself worthy of the callup; and with his reserved demeanor and his competitive edge, he seems ready for the challenge.
He wasn’t last night, though—you’ll find some of his thoughts after the jump—and neither were his teammates. The quality of baseball at the Class AAA level is generally pretty high. No surprise there: it’s just one level down from the top, and most of the players have or will have played in the majors in their careers. But every now and then, you get reminded where you are.
And so we were last night. The Bulls’ fumbling, stumbling loss dropped them back into a tie with the Braves for the IL South Division lead, with six games to play. The two teams split their final series, two games apiece, as well as the season series, 11-11 (although they could meet again in the playoffs). They have identical home records, too: 39-30. Oh, and they also have identical road records. Guess what it is? 39-30.
Suffice it to say that, at the moment, there’s a rightness to all of this evenness, which also extends into the future: each team has three games remaining against Charlotte and three against Norfolk.
It wasn’t only the Bulls who played like minor-leaguers last night: the Braves didn’t exactly look like world-beaters, either. But it was actually two other parties, the umpires and the architects, who set the tone for Tuesday’s richness of embarrassments. See how, and also more roster moves, below.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Alvin Colina, Bulls on the Move, Charlie Montoyo, Elliot johnson, Gwinnett Braves, Heath Rollins, Henry Mateo, Joe Nelson, Jon Weber, Paul Phillips, Reid Brignac, Sean Rodriguez, Wade Davis
Adam Sobsey ·
31 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
6 Comments
DBAP/ DURHAM—Yesterday I threatened to need an infinite number of words to describe Durham’s surreal, 10-9, 14-inning win over Gwinnett. Today, I could do it in two: Jeremy Hellickson. The 22-year-old Iowan, who has been excellent since his callup from Double-A Montgomery in July, had his best start of the season and led the Bulls to a 4-0 win over the Braves, extending the Bulls’ division lead to two games.
In eight sterling innings, Hellickson (pictured) allowed just one hit—a sixth-inning single by Brian Barton—walked Gregor Blanco twice, and struck out 12. On a night when the entire Durham bullpen was exhausted from its 14-inning slog on Saturday, Hellickson not only rested them but put his clamps on the game right from the get-go, serving notice by striking out the side in the first inning.
That was actually the easy part. You’ve probably seen countless highly touted young flamethrowers blow hitters away for a few innings and then melt down. Truly mature pitchers are steady, and as effective at the end of their night as at the outset. We’ve seen Hellickson break down a few times right at the end of his starts, allowing late homers just before departing. But last night, when Gwinnett got a two-out baserunner in the eighth inning, Hellickson’s last, he marooned the man there. (Not a single Brave reached second base.) That was a sign of maturation from a kid who seems already well beyond his years. His equanimity, his poker-faced ease, and his quiet resolve are as much the reasons for his success as his raw material.
Details on the best pitching performance by a Bull this year follow.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Bulls on the Move, Calvin Medlock, Charlie Montoyo, Fernando Perez, Gwinnett Braves, Heath Rollins, Jeremy Hellickson, Joe Bateman, Jon Weber, Rayner Oliveros
