The Durham Bulls were a regular-season juggernaut as usual, going 90-50 and running away with their division. As a result, they were matched up with the wild-card Charlotte Knights for Round 1 of the International League Playoffs.
Meanwhile the (Port) Charlotte Stone Crabs made the Florida State League playoffs for the first time in this save and they were matched up against the Bradenton Marauders in an I-75 series for the first round. Bradenton went up 3-1 (the FSL plays 7-game series for some reason) but Charlotte fought back to win the last two, setting up Game 7.
Durham,
Game 1: The series opener saw Mike Champagne start for the Bulls against White Sox MLBer Danny Knight, rehabbing for Charlotte tonight. Durham took a 2-0 lead in the 5th against Knight but the Knights (Danny Knight & the Knights, would make a great band name) rallied to take a 3-2 lead behind former Ray Bramdon Perez, who doubled and tripled in runs. The Bulls struck back, though, against former Bull pitcher Jeremy Allen (part of the Connor Kirkley-Nate Schultz deal) when Jon Jimenez homered off him in the 8th to tie it at 3. And on we went from there. And on and on and on. All the way until the 16th inning when leading off the inning against a lefty, Brandon Applebee went yard to give the Bulls a 4-3 walk-off win and a 1-0 lead in the series.
(Port) Charlotte: Things got off to a great start for the Stone Crabs when 2028 first-round pick Robbie Salazar hit a 3-run jack in the 1st inning to make it 3-0 Charlotte, but Bradenton crept back into the game against Jarrod Cox to tie it up in the 6th. And like in the Durham game above, it went 3-3 to extras. Charlotte thought they had it won in the 10th only to have a man thrown out at the plate with 2 gone, but in the 11th they got a leadoff walk, a steal from the pinch-runner, and a single from Jorge Herrera to get the walk-off win and complete the comeback from being down 3-1 in the series. Vinny Willard, the team's #2 pitching prospect and ranked 40th overall by BNN, went 4 innings of 1-hit relief to get the win. The Stone Crabs will take on the Daytona Tortugas for the FSL title.
Durham, Game 2: The Bulls turned a 2-0 game in the 5th into a 16-2 rout with 14 runs in the 5th through 8th innings to take a commanding 2-0 lead in their best-of-5 IL First Round series with Charlotte. And leading the way again was Brandon Applebee. Fresh off his walk-off winner in the 16th inning of Game 1, he had an RBI single in the 2nd, a triple in the 4th and scored, a 2-run double in the 5th and another 2-run double in the 6th to give him a 4-hit, 5-RBI day. Mike McKee (3 hits) and Stan Melton (4 hits) each homered and drove in 3 runs as the Bulls pounded out an astonishing 24 hits. In the Stone Crabs recap above I referred to Vinny Willard as the Rays' 2nd-best pitching prospect; on the mound for the Bulls was the organization's top pitching prospect and the #1 prospect overall according to BNN (He had been #3 the other day) and that's Ron Adams, whom I really haven't talked about much here. Adams was a
13th-round pick in 2030 that just kept blossoming. Here are his ratings:
These are some mighty impressive ratings and if he lives up to the potential ones he'll be one of MLB's best starters. The results haven't been quite in sync with those ratings: he pitched 99 innings and made 12 relief appearances before moving into the Durham rotation where he made 12 starts. He also had a couple of minor injuries although his injury rating is "normal". He whiffed 129 in those 99 innings but walked 44 and had a 4.35 ERA, partially due to an inflated .345 BABIP. Anyway, to circle back to tonight's game, Adams was brilliant and may have had his best pro start. He took a 3-hit shutout into the 8th, when he ran out of gas and gave up 2 runs on 3 hits but still finished 7.1 6 2 2 1 8 to get the win. Right now there's no spot in the projected 2034 rotation for him and since he's a 2030 draftee he doesn't even need to be put on the 40-man yet, so another season at Durham looks likely until and unless he's needed in Tampa.