Tides Sweep Bulls, Continue Durham's Trip Woes

Norfolk, VA --- A challenging road trip continued for the Durham Bulls, falling twice at Harbor Park to the Norfolk Tides on Friday night.

After avoiding a four-game sweep in Charlotte on Thursday night, the Bulls (50-50) resumed a rain-suspended game from July 3rd with the game scoreless after four. However, the Tides (58-41) scored twice in the sixth against Jim Miller (L, 3-3) and rode those runs to the opening game win.

The nightcap featured the much-ballyhooed Triple-A debut of Blake Snell, who raced from High-A to Durham in 2015, leading all minor league pitchers with a 1.20 ERA. With the game 0-0 in the third, Sharlon Schoop took out Snell to the opposite field for his first home run of the season to hand the Tides a 1-0 lead. 

In the fifth, Norfolk scratched across a pair against CJ Riefenhauser and Jhan Marinez for a 3-0 advantage. Durham got those two runs back in the sixth against Zach Davies on a double by JP Arencibia, but could get no closer. 

Snell worked four innings in his first outing with Durham, throwing 87 pitches, walking one and permitting six hits with six strikeous.

With the defeats, the Bulls fell 8 1/2 back in the South, and fell to .500 for the first time since May 22nd (22-22).

Durham is 1-5 on its current 11-game, 10-day road trip.

The series continues on Saturday night at 7:05 PM ET with Dylan Floro (8-9, 4.59) opposing Chris Jones (6-4, 2.79).