WRAL Sports Fan

Bulls

Bulls beat Red Sox, snap eight-game losing streak

Jun 23, 2009

Durham, N.C. — Stellar pitching from Major League All-Star Scott Kazmir and timely hitting from the Durham bats allowed the Bulls to break their record eight-game losing streak as they won 3-1 over Pawtucket before a big crowd Monday night at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

The Paw Sox jumped on the board first in the second inning with an RBI single to right from Angel Chavez to take an early 1-0 lead.

Durham answered back in their half of the same inning with a Ray Olmedo RBI single, driving in Ray Sadler from second to tie the game at 1-1.

With one out in the bottom of the fourth and runners on first and second, Olmedo grounded into a force out to second but beat the throw to first for what would have been an inning-ending double play, instead driving in Jon Weber from third for the Bulls go-ahead run.

The Bulls added one more in the sixth when John Jaso cranked a solo homerun to right, putting Durham up 3-1, the eventual final.

Kazmir, who was making his second ML rehab appearance, picked up the win after tossing six innings of five-hit ball allowing one run with five strikeouts. He was followed up by Jason Cromer, the normal scheduled starter, who went two and one-third innings of one-hit, shutout baseball. Dale Thayer came in for Cromer in the ninth and picked up the save, his ninth of the season.

With the win, the Bulls snapped a Triple-A record eight-game losing streak on the final game of their homestand and the final game of their four-game series with Pawtucket. The Durham Bulls set another record during their series with the Paw Sox, hosting a total of 40,339, the most ever for a four-game series at the DBAP.

Tuesday the Bulls begin an eight-game road trip with the first of that trip coming against the Mud Hens in Toledo. Right-hander Matt DeSalvo (0-1, 3.94 ERA) takes the mound for the Bulls with the first pitch scheduled for 7:00 PM.