Bulls Seven Run 4th Enough to Surpass Knights

DURHAM NC – The Durham Bulls (21-9) and the offense took game one of their six-game series against the Charlotte Knights (11-19) 8-5 on Tuesday night at Durham Bulls Athletic Park. The victory gives the Bulls a 6-1 record against their North Carolina rival early on in the season. In the club’s first series back in May, four of the Bulls five wins came in the 8th inning or later, but that was far from being the case on Tuesday.

In the early stages of the contest, the Knights were in control 1-0, and the Bulls lineup stayed quiet, going hitless into the 4th inning. However, the momentum quickly shifted, and the Bulls started to look more like the fourth-ranked offense in the Triple-A East.

Matt Tomshaw (0-3) took the ball for the Knights and flirted with a perfect game, but his outing took a quick turn for the worse. Vidal Brujan snapped the perfect game with a leadoff double and began a big frame for the Bulls racking up seven runs off six hits. The first six Bulls batters reached base, five of them being base hits, and seven out of the eight that Tomshaw faced also reached.

Wander Franco (27) got the scoring started smashing an RBI single down the third baseline and advanced to second from a throwing error by Jake Burger. Deivy Grullon (15), Wyatt Mathisen (7), and Dalton Kelly (8) followed with RBI knocks of their own. The inning’s final run was off an error that allowed Joseph Odom to reach base and Grullon to score. 

28-year-old right-hander Chris Ellis made his fifth start of the campaign for Durham. He has been utilized as an opening starter going 2-3 innings an appearance. He lasted 2 1/3, giving up one hit and a walk while adding three punchouts. The shutout performance brought his ERA down to a 7.71 mark. 

Sidearm slinger Brian Moran followed Ellis surrendering a run in 1 1/3 innings of work. Burger smacked his eighth double of the season off of Moran to lead off the 4th inning to end his night. David Hess (5-0), primarily a starter at the beginning of the year, made his sixth appearance out of the bullpen. Matt Reynolds who had a multi-hit game collected an RBI single off Hess and the run would be charged to Moran.

Hess went on to pick up the win firing 2 2/3 innings. It was his fifth of the season and he also supports a respectable 2.70 ERA. A Tim Beckham solo blast and a Blake Rutherford one-run double in the 7th were the only damage done against the righty.  

The Bulls will host the Knights on Wednesday, June 9th, for game two of the series as they try to snatch their seventh win of the season versus Charlotte.