Bulls, Rain Combine to Top Tides

The Durham Bulls won a rain-shortened 7-inning game against the Norfolk Tides 3-2 Saturday night at the DBAP. The win cut a game off Norfolk's IL South Division lead as the Bulls moved to within three games of the Tides. Durham is 7-3 against Norfolk this year, while the Tides have gone 26-6 against the rest of the league.

The Bulls got the scoring off to an early start, notching a tally on an unearned run in the second. Leslie Anderson led off the inning with a double and scored when Brandon Guyer's grounder went through the legs of first-baseman Travis Ishikawa.

Durham added two more in the bottom of the third when Rich Thompson was hit on the first pitch of the inning. Jason Bourgeois then hit his first home run of the year over the Blue Monster. The shot was Bourgeois' first homer since August 27 of last season, when he was with Omaha of the PCL. Bourgeois' current Bulls teammate Wil Myers also drove in a run for Omaha in that game last season.

Starting pitcher Alex Colome (W, 3-5, 2.86) kept the Tides in check in the early going. Colome struck out five batters in the first two innings to take back the lead in the IL strikeout race. He finished with 8 strikeouts in 6 innings, giving him 59 for the year. Colome also won his second straight game and lowered his ERA to 2.86, which is on the cusp of the league-leaders list.

Norfolk relied on the long ball to cut into the lead. Ishikawa hit one over the Monster in the fourth, and Trayvon Robinson had a disputed shot in the fifth.

Robinson's blast was to deep left center, and Thompson signaled to the umpire that the ball went through a gap in the fence for a ground rule double. The umpires initially put Robinson on second base, but after conferring, they changed the ruling to a home run that cut the Bulls' lead to 3-2.

Colome escaped a bases-loaded jam in the sixth, and Steve Geltz set down the Tides in the seventh for his first save of the season. The rains arrived in the bottom of the seventh, and the umpires called the game after a brief delay.  

The brief two-game series continues Sunday at 5:05pm. J.D. Martin (5-1, 3.63) starts for Durham against Norfolk's Zach Britton (1-1, 4.60).