A couple of quick notes before I hit the hay:
* Did Jason Cromer make a god angry? All the guy does is pitch well every single time out. He has a 1.75 ERA and a WHIP barely over 1.00 with a .214 BA-against; but he's just 3-2 in 10 starts even though he's lasted at least six innings in six of his last seven. He allowed one run in six innings last night and got another no-decision.
* Should we be worried about Dale Thayer? He has allowed 10 earned runs this year: half of them came in his first 26 appearances, the other half in the last nine. I could be wrong, but it seems like he often gets victimized by doubles. In fairness to Thayer, one of his recent blown saves was almost entirely the result of bad luck; and he was a strike away from keeping the winning run from scoring last night when Lastings Milledge prolonged the inning with an infield chopper off the plate that went for a cheap hit. Nonetheless, Thayer surrendered an RBI single to the next batter to end the game.
Any number of things could be causing Thayer's recent struggles (which aren't really that bad: he has a decent 3.46 ERA over his last 10 appearances, although that's about double his ERA for the rest of the year). One, part of Thayer's effectiveness owes generally to his unusual slingshot-like delivery, which makes the ball hard to pick up until you adjust to Thayer's motion; by now, a lot of hitters have seen Thayer at some point in the season and may have started seeing the ball better when he pitches. Two, Rays' player-development whiz-kid Chaim Bloom told me earlier this season that Thayer is still prone to missing his spots badly on occasion; perhaps, as the season wears on, he's having more trouble locating his pitches. Third, Thayer fell apart last year after the All-Star break, posting a 1.46 ERA prior and a 6.16 mark from there on out. Maybe he's a first-half pitcher, or maybe it's that his second-half troubles were actually just a symptom of one of the first two chronic issues: familiarity and control. It's also possible that Thayer is trying to hone his changeup, and hitting a few bumps in the road while he throws it more often. Whatever the case, the Bulls need him to be strong at the back end of the bullpen. With Winston Abreu long gone (and learning the hard way how steep the step is between AAA and the majors), Thayer is the only Boba Fett-like action figure in the Durham bullpen.
* The Bulls have lost three straight games. They're still only 1.5 games behind Norfolk, though, because the Tides also lost again last night (they have a bizarre habit of paralleling the Bulls' win-loss patterns). Wednesday's game at Indianapolis starts at 1:00 in the afternoon, which explains why John Jaso caught his fourth straight game on Tuesday even though two of them were knee-bustingly long extra-inning affairs. It's almost certain that Craig Albernaz will catch Wade Davis for the Bulls, who need a strong start from their ace. The way they've been hitting lately, zeroes might be in order.