Holy Toledo! Upton slams Hens

B.J. Upton blasted a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth inning on Friday night to give the Durham Bulls a 5-4 victory over the Toledo Mud Hens.

Toledo's Lee Gardner replaced Corey Hamman to start the ninth with a 4-1 lead but issued a leadoff walk to Shawn Riggans. John Raburn struck out, but Brent Butler also walked. Fernando Cortez flied to right field, advancing both runners.

After Darnell McDonald walked to load the bases, Upton hit the first pitch from Mark Woodyard (0-2) over the fence in left field for his first homer of the season and first career grand slam. The Devil Rays prospect went 2-for-5 with a stolen base and was named the MiLB.com Star of the Day.

A record crowd of 11,060 watched Durham improve to 8-1 as McDonald and Delmon Young each had two of the Bulls' eight hits.

Justin Miller (2-0) struck out two in a scoreless ninth for the win. Durham starter Jamie Shields allowed three unearned runs on six hits with six strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings.

Alexis Gomez had an RBI double and scored on Don Kelly's single to give the Mud Hens a 3-1 lead in the seventh. Brian Peterson led off the eighth with his first homer of the season to give Toledo (3-6) a three-run advantage.

Colby Lewis started for the Mud Hens, yielding an unearned run on six hits and three walks while striking out four in six innings.