Weber, Williams Lift Bulls Over Knights

DURHAM, NC - Justin Williams drilled his eighth home run of the year and Ryan Weber struck out eight to lead the Durham Bulls past the Charlotte Knights 5-2 in front of 11,073 fans on 'Stranger Things' Friday night.
Kean Wong stretched his on-base streak to 25 games with a leadoff double in the home half of the first. The Bulls (52-38) broke open the scoring in the following frame as Justin Williams drilled a solo blast on a 2-1 pitch to put the home team in front 1-0 through the second inning.
Durham added to its lead in the bottom of the third, when Wong led off the inning with a walk and Willy Adames followed with a double to score Wong. Later in the frame, Brandon Snyder drove in his 35^th run of the season with a single to left scoring Adames and pushing the lead to 3-0.
The Bulls stole three bases on the evening including a double steal by Johnny Field and Andrew Velazquez in the fourth inning that was later cashed in on a double off the Blue Monster by Nick Ciuffo to extend the lead to 5-0.
Ryan Weber (W, 6-3) motored through 6.0 scoreless-innings to earn his fourth consecutive win, allowing four hits and recording a season-high eight strikeouts. He lowered his ERA from 2.23 to 2.05. Weber has allowed just two runs over his past 18.1 innings with 16 strikeouts.
The bullpen allowed two runs over the final 3.0 innings and Ruben Alaniz (S, 3) closed out the last two outs of the ninth inning to earn his third save of the season and clinch a 5-2 Bull City victory.
The Bulls continue a four-game series against the Knights Saturday night at 6:35 p.m. at the DBAP. Yonny Chirinos (0-2, 6.23) is scheduled to start for the Bulls against Michael Kopech (3-7, 4.70) for the Knights.