Game 43: Bulls at Jumbo Shrimp

Cooper Huskey

Published in

Shrimp & Grits

5 min readJun 24, 2021

Thursday, June 24, 2021–7:05 p.m.

Durham Bulls (29–14) at Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (24–18)

121 Financial Ballpark — Jacksonville, Fla.

LAST TIME OUT:

The Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp won a tight, low-scoring game against the Durham Bulls last night 3–1. It was just the second win for Jacksonville this season when scoring less than four runs in a game. Durham got on the board first, scoring their lone run in the top of the second inning. Dalton Kelly got a hold of a pitch right over the plate and sent it to the bleachers in right field. It was the only blemish of the night for Jacksonville pitcher Shawn Morimando. Morimando would only allow three more hits for the Bulls in his six innings of work while striking out six batters. It was his first quality start of the season and Jacksonville’s fifth.

The Jumbo Shrimp tied the game at one in the bottom of the second off a Chad Wallach home run, which was also hit to right field. It was Wallach’s third homer of the season and his first one since June 5 at Gwinnett. Isan Díaz then gave the Jumbo Shrimp the lead in the fifth inning when he hit the third solo home run of the game. Bryson Brigman added an insurance run when he hit a double down the right-field line that was just a couple feet from going over the wall. The RBI double brought in Corey Bird and gave Jacksonville a comfortable cushion heading into the ninth inning.

GAME INFO:

With the win last night, Jacksonville has tied the series with Durham at one game apiece. Jacksonville is 1–1 when entering a game with the series tied 1–1. Their win was at Gwinnett and the loss was at Charlotte.

**Chad Wallach** hit his third home run of the season in the bottom of the second last night to tie the game at one. (Andreea Cardani/Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp)

MEET THE BULLS:

Durham is the Triple-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays. The Bulls enter with a 29–14 record and are in first place in the Southeast Division.

Durham is managed by Brady Williams, who returns for his second season with the Bulls. Williams has spent his entire managerial career in the Tampa Bay Rays system, with stops in Hudson Valley, Bowling Green, Charlotte, Montgomery and now Durham. In his 11 seasons as a minor league manager, Williams has only had two losing seasons.

The Bulls lead the Triple-A Southeast Division in home runs this year with 67. Eighteen of their dingers have come off the Jumbo Shrimp this season. Durham is third in all of Triple-A East in home runs. Omaha leads the league with 87 home runs.

With 36 games between the clubs on the 2021 schedule, the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp and Durham Bulls have cooked up the Surf & Turf Series. As opposed to the traditional first place trophy or championship ring, the result of the series will boil down to the losing team being forced to give away t-shirts with the winning team’s logo during a series in 2022. This will mark the first instance in Minor League Baseball history that a team will be giving away merchandise with an opponent’s logo on it. Durham leads the series 8–6.

Durham is home to six of the top 20 prospects in Tampa Bay’s farm system. Wander Franco, who is the consensus №1 prospect in all of baseball, was with the Bulls earlier this season, but was called up to the Rays on Sunday, June 20. In his debut, Franco went 2-for-4 with a three-run home run in the fifth inning to tie the game at five.

PITCHING MATCHUP:

RHP Drew Strotman (5–2, 4.46 ERA)

Drew Strotman will make his eighth start for the Bulls tonight. The 24-year-old righty was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in the fourth round of the 2017 draft. Strotman is the №19 prospect for Tampa Bay and has been advancing very quickly since his 2018 Tommy John surgery. Strotman’s last start against the Jumbo Shrimp was May 28, when tossed five scoreless innings and struck out four batters to earn his fourth win of the season. However, after having a dominant May, Strotman has cooled off in the month of June. He is 1–2 with 10.38 ERA.

LHP Eric Stout (0–1, 12.96 ERA)

Eric Stout is making his second start for the Jumbo Shrimp tonight. Stout signed with the Miami Marlins as a free agent on June 6. Previously, he had been in the Kansas City Royals, San Diego Padres, and Cincinnati Reds organizations. He made his MLB debut with the Royals on April 25, 2018. Stout elected free agency after concluding the 2019 season with the Reds’ Triple-A affiliate Louisville Bats. He wasn’t picked back up by an MLB team until the Marlins signed him a couple of weeks ago. Stout made his first start for Jacksonville on June 17 at Charlotte. He tossed four innings against the Knights and surrendered seven runs on six hits in a losing effort. All seven runs for Charlotte were scored off four home runs. Stout has four pitches in his repertoire: a fastball, slider, changeup, and a sinker.

LINEUP:

Bryson Brigman, SS
Lewis Brinson, CF
Garrett Cooper, RF
Chad Wallach, C
Isan Díaz, 3B
Deven Marrero, 1B
Corey Bird, LF
Zach Zehner, DH
Justin Twine, 2B

News from the Troupe:

The Jumbo Shrimp have not committed an error in the last five games. If Jacksonville doesn’t make a miscue tonight, they will set their longest error-free streak of the season.

TRIPLE-A SOUTHEAST DIVISION STANDINGS