Showing posts tagged “Julio DePaula”
Adam Sobsey ·
23 Sep 2009, 5:00 AM ·
7 Comments
ESPN 2—And that’s that: the Durham Bulls took a 4-0 lead early, squandered it in the middle, and got help at the end to beat the Memphis Redbirds, 5-4, in 11 innings and claim the Triple-A Championship. It’s kind of amazing, really. (What’s really great is that the Bulls’ own Web site has the winning run in Memphis’s row in the linescore.) The Bulls, who are the first International League team to win the crown, are officially the best Triple-A baseball team in America, which by extension makes them the best team in the entire minor leagues. They could probably also take six of 10 from the Pittsburgh Pirates, if they had Winston Abreu—which they don’t, not anymore, but that’s for well after the jump.
Did you know, by the way, that 2009 is the Year of the Bull? A game report and some final thoughts follow.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Brandon Yarbrough, Calvin Medlock, Carlos Hernandez, Charlie Montoyo, Jason Cromer, Jeremy Hellickson, Joe Bateman, Julio DePaula, Memphis Redbirds, Michel Hernandez, Mitch Talbot, Oneli Perez, playoffs, Rashad Eldridge, Ray Olmedo, Sean Rodriguez, Triple-A championship, Winston Abreu
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 ·
17 Sep 2009, 11:43 PM ·
6 Comments
Hot off the radio, sportsfans: The Durham Bulls have just beaten the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, 3-2 in 12 innings, to claim the Governor’s Cup, their first since 2003.
The bottom of the 12th was a sweaty-palmed affair after the Bulls plated the go-ahead run on the top of the inning on a double by John Jaso. Durham closer Winston Abreu, the most dominant pitcher in the league, came on seeking his third save in as many nights. He issued a four-pitch leadoff walk to Juan Miranda, discovered a bloody popped blister on his finger, and left the game.
Julio DePaula came in, making his third appearance in as many nights. DePaula is the only Bull to have been on the active roster all season long. He got Cody Ransom to fly out to left field on the first pitch he threw. Then he walked John Rodriguez. It was the 11th walk of the night allowed by Durham pitchers. The next batter, Reegie Corona, sliced a looper down the left-field line. Justin Ruggiano chased after it and made a diving, game-saving catch. The Roodge threw into the infield, where Ray Olmedo fielded the ball and tried to double Rodriguez off of first—but his throw was wild. Both runners advanced. Ruggiano crouched in left field, in pain. In the previous inning, Desmond Jennings, who had tied the game in the eighth inning with a slump-breaking, two-out, two-run single, had apparently injured himself a little bit on a big swing. He stayed in the game. The Bulls were going down, man by man, before our eyes ears.
With two outs now, the tying run was on third and the winning run on second. Doug Bernier, one of those pesky slap hitters, stepped in. He got ahead 2-1, then DePaula evened it at 2-2. Bernier hit a comebacker toward the mound. DePaula speared it. Rather than risk a throw, he ran the ball to first himself, stepped on the bag for a 1u putout (it brought to mind a funky 1u putout he made earlier this season when he ran down a man in the shortstop hole), and with their only wire-to-wire player taking the final out into his own hands, the Bulls were champions of the league. They’ll play in the Triple-A Championship game in Oklahoma City on Tuesday night, against the winner of the Pacific Coast League championship series between Memphis and Sacramento.
I’ll be back with more later, perhaps not until tomorrow. But for now: Congratulations, 2009 Bulls, from Triangle Offense and the Independent Weekly. It’s been a helluva season.
Baseball, Durham Bulls Cody Ransom, Desmond Jennings, Doug Bernier, Governor's Cup, John Jaso, John Rodriguez, Juan Miranda, Julio DePaula, Justin Ruggiano, playoffs, Ray Olmedo, Reegie Corona, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, The Roodge, Winston Abreu
Adam Sobsey ·
17 Sep 2009, 4:00 AM ·
2 Comments
DBAP/ DURHAM—Fans who came out to see the last home game of the Durham Bulls’ 2009 season—2,480 of you, officially—got a bit of a bonus. Last night’s 4-1 Durham win was basically two separate games: first, a three-inning tune-up for a pair of recuperating starting pitchers, followed by the real deal, when the two teams’ tenured players faced off for six taut innings of playoff baseball. With the win, the Bulls put themselves on the brink of a championship they haven’t won since 2003.
The entire game was played in a steady mizzle, and it seemed appropriate that the last game of the year saw the same sort of weather that has hung over the Triangle all season long: gray, moist, heavy, moody. Not a fun evening for a pair of rehabilitating starters to get their work in, but that’s what they did. The Bulls have to be grateful that Scranton/Wilkes-Barre starter Ian Kennedy was on a low pitch limit. He faced nine batters and retired them all, striking out six of them. Kennedy, who is coming back from an aneurysm in his pitching arm, threw 43 pitches, 28 for strikes, and had the Bulls totally mastered from the get-go. He struck out the side swinging in the first, making Joe Dillon look stupid on a changeup for the last strike of the inning. He got Sean Rodriguez looking in the second inning, on a fastball that was more or less right down the middle. He had Justin Ruggiano chasing sliders after that.
The story was different for the Bulls’ starter, Mitch Talbot.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Charlie Montoyo, Chris Nowak, Doug Bernier, Eric Duncan, Ian Kennedy, Jason Cromer, Joe Bateman, Julio DePaula, Kei Igawa, Luck, Mitch Talbot, Rashad Eldridge, Ray Olmedo, runner's interference, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, Winston Abreu
Mike Potter ·
15 Sep 2009, 11:06 PM ·
4 Comments
DBAP/DURHAM Well good evening sports fans from beautiful Downtown Durham, where I am in what has become my regular spot covering the Governors’ Cup Finals ever since the Bulls joined the International League in 1998.
The Bulls are taking on the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees in the opener of the best-of-5 series for the title for the second straight year, after losing the series in four games in 2008. It is only the fourth rematch in Governors’ Cup Finals history and the first since 1997.
Durham is in the Governors’ Cup Finals for the third straight season and the seventh time in its 12 seasons in the league. The Bulls won back-to-back championships in 2002 and ‘03.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre has been in the playoffs four times since 1992, with its only championship coming last season.
The series winner advances to the one-game Triple-A National Championship Game on Sept. 22 in Oklahoma City.
Tonight I - who covered the Bulls for The Incredible Shrinking Herald-Sun from May of 1985 to May of 2009, when they decided to start sending my former salary to the hard-working suits in Kentucky - am pinch-hitting for Adam Sobsey, who has been covering the team all season for Triangle Offense. Don’t worry, folks. Adam, who is expected back for Game 2 on Wednesday night, misses a good one as the Bulls win a 4-1 pitchers’ duel for ace Jeremy Hellickson (pictured).
I am also, incidentally, covering for the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader.
There is, by Triple-A standards, a veritable media crush in the press box. By the time I fight through a traffic jam on West 40 to get to the park from Brier Creek, all the mashed potatoes that went with the glorified Salisbury steaks on the buffet are gone. Hello, kettle chips.
But enough about all that. Hard-nosed Carolina Hurricanes forward Erik Cole fires a solid ceremonial first pitch and it’s time to play ball!
The Bulls get to SWB’s Romulo Sanchez for a run in the first. Henry Mateo draws a one-out walk, takes third on Joe Dillon’s single to left and scores on Sean Rodriguez’s two-out single to left.
Durham adds to its lead in the sixth. Mateo leads off with a bunt up the third-base line, with Sanchez firing the ball past first and down the right-field line. Mateo winds up at third with a hit, an error on Sanchez and a fielding error on right fielder Colin Curtis on the play.Dillon then singles to right to make it 2-0 and chase the starter.
Matt Joyce continues the rally with a double to right off Zach Kronke, followed by a one-out intentional walk to Justin Ruggiano. Then with two out, Michel Hernandez strokes a two-run single to center to make it 4-0.
John Rodriguez, who played in Durham last season, gets the Yankees on the board in the seventh by blasting Hellickson’s two-out, 1-1 offering over the wall at the 375 mark in left center. Julio DePaula replaces Hellickson.
And that’s where the score stays, as DePaula and Winston Abreu shut the door.
Wednesday’s Game 2 will be the last game of the season in Durham, with the remainder of the series at PNC Field in Moosic, Pa.
Here’s what they said …
Bulls manager Charlie Montoyo: “Hellickson has been outstanding all year long. We knew we didn’t have much room for error tonight. Michel got a big hit for us in the sixth. He’s been swinging the bat good. When Joe (Dillon) was on third base, I told him (Hernandez) was going to do something good.”
Hellickson: “We were in a few tough spots. … I just bear down in those situations - throw good strikes and make good pitches. I had a better fastball tonight. I don’t think I mixed it up as much. Everything felt good though, I just had a better command of my fastball tonight.”
Dillon: “This team is a great team and we have been all year long. We got another great pitching performance from Hellickson.”
What does it all mean?
That the Bulls are two wins away from their third Governors’ Cup.
Stars of the game
1. Hellickson, for allowing one run in 6 2/3 innings.
2. Hernandez, for the two-run single in the sixth.
3. Rodriguez, for his homer and a single.
Play of the game
Hernandez’s two-run single in the sixth.
On deck
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre at Durham, Wednesday, 7:05 p.m.
Ian Kennedy (R, 0-0, 0.00) vs. Mitch Talbot (R, 4-4, 4.47)
Baseball, Carolina Hurricanes, Durham Bulls Charlie Montoyo, Colin Curtis, Erik Cole, Henry Mateo, Ian Kennedy, International League, Jeremy Hellickson, Joe Dillon, Julio DePaula, Justin Ruggiano, Matt Joyce, Michel Hernandez, Mitch Talbot, Romulo Sanchez, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, Winston Abreu, Zach Kronke
Adam Sobsey ·
12 Sep 2009, 5:00 AM ·
6 Comments
Luck. Did it even itself out last night in the Bulls’ achingly difficult, teeth-gnashing 4-3 win at Louisville? The Bulls scored all four of their runs in the fourth inning with help from two walks and two singles that might easily have been outs: they weren’t hit hard. Down 4-1, the Bats chipped away, scoring a run on a Yonder Alonso homer in the sixth inning off of Jason Cromer (it was disputed by Justin Ruggiano, who claimed that the ball hadn’t cleared the wall but had been interfered with by a fan), and then getting a pair of cheap infield hits by Todd Frazier and Juan Francisco to push across their third run in the seventh off of Joe Bateman, who pitched well and can be faulted only for a leadoff walk, really. The rest was just rotten luck. Note, however, that Cromer, who has earned the nickname “The Strandman” from the folks at Draysbay, allowed none of the seven men who reached against him to score, save the two guys who hit homers. Over 115+ Triple-A innings, opponents are hitting .155 against Comer with runners in scoring position. With RISP and two outs, .085. Wow.
Julio DePaula did a good job of stranding a leadoff single in the eighth. In the top of the ninth, Justin Ruggiano singled (it was his third hit of the game) and took off for second on a pitch to Elliot Johnson, which Johnson hit to center field. Chris Heisey came on and made a good running catch; he fired to first to nail Ruggiano for an (un)lucky double play. That twin-killing loomed large when Michel Hernandez followed with a double to right that might have scored Ruggiano from first. Henry Mateo then smacked a line drive near first base, and Yonder Alonso made a nice grab to end the inning. Luck.
Winston Abreu came on in the ninth and fanned Heisey and Jay Bruce on six pitches. He got Frazier down in the count 0-2 before Frazier reached on an infield single, his second in two innings. Then Juan Francisco fell behind 0-2 before he reached on another infield single, his second in two innings, dribbling one down the first base line and simply getting lucky that it was timed so that he managed to elude Joe Dillon’s tag.
It seemed as if fortune was simply favoring Louisville. Chris Valaika stepped in—and he, too, had had an infield single the night before in Durham, driving in the Bats’ fifth run—but this time Abreu finished the job, getting a swinging strikeout from Valaika and earning a save while giving Cromer a well-deserved win. The Bulls are a victory away from winning the series.
If they’re to win it on Saturday, they’ll have to do it behind Rayner Oliveros, who has made all of two appearances for Durham, one good, one eh, since his callup from Double-A Montgomery in late August. Oliveros spent over four months in the Southern League this season, but missed pitching in the Biscuits’ series against the Mudcats, several of whom are now with Louisville. So he’s as blind as the Bats are.
Lest that seem totally unfair, which it is, consider the Bats’ counter-move: Tom Cochran, a 26-year-old lefty (better against righties, oddly) who has made all of three appearances for Louisville, two good, one eh, since his callup from Double-A Carolina in late August. Not too long ago, Cochran was pitching for the Worcester (MA) Tornadoes in the independent Canadian-American Association. Cochran spent almost three months in the Southern League this season, but missed pitching in the Mudcats’ series against the Biscuits, two of whom are now with Durham.
In other words, take your pick. The Bulls have played five games at Louisville this season, and all five of them have been decided by a single run. One went 13 innings, another went 16. Here’s my only prediction: after hitting no home runs in the first three games of the series, the Bulls—who led the league in homers this season—will hit at least one on Saturday. And here’s something I won’t predict but will suggest: Saturday could be a slugfest. (Hey, that rhymed!) The game is at 6:05 p.m.
Baseball, Carolina Mudcats, Durham Bulls Chris Denove, Jason Cromer, Joe Bateman, Juan Francisco, Julio DePaula, Justin Ruggiano, Louisville Bats, Luck, Rayner Oliveros, Todd Frazier, Tom Cochran, Winston Abreu
Adam Sobsey ·
6 Sep 2009, 5:00 AM ·
Comment
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 ·
30 Aug 2009, 6:00 AM ·
5 Comments
DBAP/ DURHAM—You’ve probably heard of the Infinite Monkey Theorem, which “states that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type a given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare.”
If you apply the Infinite Monkey Theorem to baseball, you’ll get something like the Durham Bulls’ 10-9, 14-inning win over Gwinnett last night. It’s unlikely that a monkey will type Hamlet, but it’s also inevitable, in infinite time. And it’s also unlikely that last night’s game should ever happen, but last night’s game did happen. You could look it up.
“No, I’ve never seen anything like it,” was the first sentence out of Charlie Montoyo’s mouth afterward, before anyone had even asked him a question.
It would take me an infinite number of words to describe everything noteworthy about the doings at the DBAP on Saturday night (and, in fact, a bit of Sunday morning; the five-hour game ended at about ten past midnight). Although I don’t mind claiming that I am not a sportswriter who would ever, ever succumb to fatigue—I am a veritable dog with a bone, or better yet a monkey with an infinite number of bananas (and if you read that last clause carefully, you found the syntactical giveaway: I’m not a sportswriter)—as I say, although I don’t mind claiming indefatigability, which is an eight-syllable word, the Bulls have another game fairly soon, and at some point between now and then I have to sleep, eat, exercise, and, uh, type. Like a monkey.
And in case you need more monkey stuff, consider that last night’s ballgame featured mascot antics from something called Reggy the Purple Party Dude (he looks like a Sesame Street character who has somehow started growing french fries out of the top of his head). He monkeyed around in the first inning with a fake first-base coach, later with the umpire and Wool E. Bull, and then with “his inflatable nine-foot monkey,” which was both exactly what it sounds like and also inhabited somewhere in its recesses by a person. During one mid-inning caper, a banana figured heavily, along with spray cans of that fake shaving cream stuff that is actually string; and although I know that this is a family Web site, the fact is that the whole Reggy act, including the “his inflatable monkey” scenes and (especially) the fake-first-base-coach antics, played uncomfortably like the preparatory scenes of very, very, very specialized pornography targeted at an extremely specific fetish market I would prefer not to know anything about.
And also, the game was full of monkey wrenches.
I’ll give you all I’ve got if you click Continue reading »
Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Akinori Iwamura, Andy Sonnanstine, Aristotle, Barbaro Canizares, Brandon Jones, Charlie Montoyo, Chris Richard, Desmond Jennings, Deunte Heath, Diory Hernandez, Douglas Adams, duct tape, Elliot johnson, extraneous innings, F.O.B., Fernando Perez, Gwinnett Braves, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Infinite Improbability Drive, Infinite Monkey Theorem, Inflatable Monkey, injury, Joe Bateman, Joe Nelson, Jon Weber, Julio DePaula, Michel Hernandez, monkey, Olympic Rings, Ray Olmedo, Reggy the Purple Party Dude, Reid Brignac, Wade Davis, walks, Wes Timmons
Adam Sobsey ·
27 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
1 Comment
Jeff Bennett’s arrival in Durham a couple of weeks ago has drawn relatively little attention. Akinori Iwamura and Fernando Perez are getting most of the attention on their rehab assignments, and Tampa had already recently demoted another struggling major-league reliever, Joe Nelson. Bennett doesn’t even appear on the Bulls’ roster list on the team’s web site.
But a Bull he is, and although Bennett (pictured), who is primarily a reliever, has been far from perfect in two starts—he has walked five in 9 1/3 innings, a habit that suits him well to the Bulls’ walk-happy staff—he has also done a serviceable job filling in for injured lefty starter Carlos Hernandez. Pitching last night against Norfolk, Bennett lasted 5 1/3 innings, and his only significant mistake was surrendering a two-run homer to—you ready for this?—former Bull Rhyne Hughes. (Yes, okay, Rhyne, we’re sorry we traded you. Now that’s enough of that.)
Other than that, Norfolk failed to score, thanks in no small part to some wiggling out of jams by Julio DePaula and Joe Bateman—although granted that they brought the pectin to the mound with them. Bennett got his first victory as a Bull and Durham beat Norfolk, 4-2. The lineup wasn’t especially potent, but they scored the runs they needed to score, all of them by the fifth inning. The win gave the Bulls their first three-game winning streak in about a month, and it pushed their lead over the Tides to six games in the wild-card race with 12 left to play. Syracuse beat Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to remain 3.5 games back. (Don’t look now, but the revivified Chiefs trail the Yankees by just 2.5 games in the IL North Division.)
More intriguingly, Charlotte rallied to beat Gwinnett in 11 innings, 10-7, pulling Durham to within just a single game of the Braves for the South Division lead. (Who knew that Reid Gorecki, called up to the majors a week ago, was the team’s glue? His departure snapped a five-game winning streak, and Gwinnett is just 3-4 since.) Things are getting quite interesting, to say the least, as the season races to its close.
A few notes follow.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls Elliot johnson, Gwinnett Braves, Henry Mateo, Jeff Bennett, Joe Bateman, Julio DePaula, Norfolk Tides, Ray Olmedo, Reid Brignac, Reid Gorecki, Rhyne Hughes, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, slump, Syracuse Chiefs
Adam Sobsey ·
18 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
Comment
DBAP/ DURHAM—A few days ago, Bulls right fielder Matt Joyce lost a fly ball in the lights, but finally spotted it just in time to make the catch. After the game, he talked about the helpless feeling that overcomes an outfielder when that happens, and he recalled a similar play in the majors last year, when he lost a ball hit by the Twins’ Joe Mauer in the notorious Bermuda Triangle of the Minneapolis Metrodome’s lights and ceiling. He happened to spot it at the very last moment and leaped to spear it for an out. Fortunately, it seems like more often than not, the ball eventually emerges from the white-out and gets caught.
In the fifth inning of last night’s 9-3 loss to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, the Bulls were already in a deep hole, down 7-0. But somehow the game seemed closer than that. Bulls starter Jason Cromer had struggled from the very first batter of the game, getting tagged for three runs in the first inning, but he actually didn’t look all that bad over the next three-plus innings. Although he had trouble hitting his spots, and kept working long at-bats, he might have gotten through the fifth without allowing any more runs to score but for some bad luck and some worse fielding (partly his own). Instead, he gave up an unearned run in the second inning and another in the fourth. But after that, he recovered and retired the next six Yankees. By the end of five innings, he had thrown 99 pitches, and it was the perfect time for Charlie Montoyo to take him out of the game.
But it was quite obvious that Cromer was staying in. Why? Because the Durham bullpen is once again ragged with overuse, and Montoyo has been forced to ride his starters a little longer than usual. On Friday night, Montoyo felt compelled to leave Andy Sonnanstine on the mound to get battered for 11 hits and seven runs in five innings. The next night, he left Jeremy Hellickson in for an extra couple of batters in another bullpen-preservation attempt, and it cost Hellickson a run when he allowed a home run to John Rodriguez. Then, on Sunday, Carlos Hernandez missed his second straight start with a wrist injury, and Montoyo had to call on reliever Joe Bateman for a 54-pitch, 3 1/3-inning spot start; after Bateman, three other relievers burned up ample pitches to close out the game.
So when Cromer ran into immediate first-inning trouble last night, we in the press box were already wondering aloud how Montoyo would manage his pitching staff for the rest of the evening. It was clear that Jason Childers, Julio DePaula and Dale Thayer were available, but I felt compelled to add that if the game got out of hand, we’d see Craig Albernaz, the Bulls’ little-used fourth(!)-string catcher. Montoyo had revealed in a side comment a few nights ago that Albernaz might have to do some mop-up work in support of the short-handed bullpen (Jeff Bennett, recently demoted from Tampa, hasn’t arrived in Durham yet); and although he said that with a a smirk on his face, I could tell that what he didn’t want to have to admit was that he wasn’t really kidding.
So: Cromer takes the mound again in the top of the sixth on Monday, trailing 5-0, and I’m thinking, uh-oh.
What I couldn’t have known was that I should perhaps have been thinking uh-oh on someone else’s behalf.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Akinori Iwamura, Bullpen, Charlie Montoyo, Chris Richard, Craig Albernaz, Elliot johnson, Fernando Perez, Gwinnett Braves, halfro, Jake Peavy, Jason Childers, Jason Cromer, Jeff Bennett, Jon Weber, Jonathan Albaladejo, Josh Towers, Julio DePaula, Justin Ruggiano, Matt Joyce, Russ Ortiz, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, Yurendell de Caster
