Nine times this season the Charlotte Knights lined up against the Durham Bulls, and nine times they walked off winners. Friday night in Durham, on the tenth try, the Bulls finally hit their way out of it.
Charlotte dropped the series opener 8-2. That number nine, the in-state bragging rights the Knights had held over the Bulls all year long, is now just something that used to be true. Both teams came off a four-day layoff for the Triple-A All-Star break, and Charlotte came out swinging: Ryan Galanie singled home a run in the top of the first. Galanie had himself a night, three of Charlotte's four hits. Four hits. That is the whole ballgame in a single number.
Durham answered in the bottom of the first, and a three-run homer in the second put the Bulls up 4-1. The Knights scratched an unearned run across in the fourth to make it 4-2, and for a good while it stayed a ballgame. Then the eighth happened. Two more Durham homers, a four-run inning, and that was the night.
The arms were the bright spot, because the arms usually are with this team. Jonathan Cannon gave Charlotte five good innings again. Tanner McDougal followed with two scoreless, and here is a number worth keeping: McDougal has not allowed a run since he came off the IL two weeks ago. When the bats wake up, this staff is waiting.
Game 2 is Saturday night in Durham, 6:45 Eastern. Charlotte gets another crack at the Bulls, and the six-game sweep the Knights hung on this same Durham club back in June says they know how to do it. It was only a week ago they were out-hitting Nashville and losing anyway, so the recipe is simple enough: the hits have to turn into runs.
Nine in a row over anybody is a heck of a thing. Losing the tenth is just baseball. The Knights get the Bulls again tonight.