The Bulls keep running in Durham. Here’s how they stand against the rest of Triple-A
DURHAM — Dalton Kelly and Mike Ford had the most spectacular hits at Durham Bulls Athletic Park on Saturday, but it was a single off the bat of Kevin Padlo in the bottom of the 10th that truly set off fireworks.
Padlo lined a 1-2 pitch down the left field line to plate Josh Lowe from second base with the winning run to lift the Durham Bulls to a 6-5 win over the Gwinnett Stripers on Saturday, making the postgame fireworks festivities that much more enjoyable for the stand-room-only crowd.
Gwinnett had taken a 5-4 lead in the top of the 10th on a Jonathan Lucroy single to score Terrence Gore. But in the bottom of the inning, with two on and nobody out, Nathan Lukes lofted a pop fly into left field. Tristan Gray scampered home on the sac fly to tie the game, but Vidal Brujan was caught off first base, turning a routine play into a pair of outs.
But Lowe took matters into his own, er, feet. He walked, and swiped second, setting up Padlo’s game-winning single to left.
The win was the Bulls third in a row and sixth in the past eight games, helping the Tampa Bay Rays’ Triple-A affiliate to the top spot in the Southeast Division standings. The Bulls’ 35 wins are the most in Triple-A this season, one better than Scranton/Wiles-Barre (Yankees) of the Northeast Division.
And that’s been without baseball’s No. 1 prospect, Wander Franco, who is now on the Tampa Bay Rays’ bench after a late-June call up. Franco, though, hasn’t taken the majors by storm — yet. The young infielder is hitting just .200 (7-for-35) through Friday night’s game.
“Thank God that I’ve had this chance to be up here,’’ Franco told the Tampa Bay Times before Friday’s game against Toronto in Buffalo, N.Y. “I feel good. I just know if I trust my hard work that good things are going to happen, and I’ve just got to maintain that.’’
The biggest adjustment, he told the Times, has been the pitching, especially since Franco played only 214 minor-league games — 39 above Class A — prior to his callup to Tampa Bay.
“At this level, I think it’s the location,’’ Franco told the Times. “They just are able to locate a lot more consistently.’’
Meanwhile, in Durham, Saturday’s contest started for the Bulls much like the night ended for their fans — with a bang.
Gwinnett opened things up when leadoff hitter Orlando Arcia lined a 2-1 pitch over the right-field wall for a home run on the fourth pitch of the game from Team USA-bound Shane Baz.
In the second, though, the Bulls seized control on back-to-back home runs from Kelly and Ford, the latter clearing the right-field concourse with his blast. They extended their lead inj the fifth on a two-run single from Lowe that plated Deivy Grullon and Gray.
The Stripers tied the game in the sixth on a three-run home run by Drew Waters. The teams combined to use eight pitchers over the next four innings before the Bulls pulled off the victory in the 10th.
The teams were slated to finish off their six-game series at DBAP on Sunday night. Joe Ryan (3-3, 3.73) was scheduled to start for the Bulls, while Jasseel De La Cruz was slated to go for the Stripers.
