Durham 10, Tides 7

The Norfolk Tides were one well-placed pitch away from winning Thursday afternoon. Problem was, Durham's Jon Weber was at the plate, and he had been a tough out all day. He was toughest with two out in the top of the ninth. With a runner on second, Weber stroked a single up the middle to tie it at 7-all. Two batters later, Dan Johnson launched a three-run homer to right and a game-day crowd of 7,050 went home, for the most part, disappointed. Record-tying day

Weber's 5-for-6 showing tied a Durham club record for hits in a game, and for Weber it came out of nowhere. By the time he reached his locker stall in the visitors clubhouse, some wiseguy had erased his name on the dry white board above his stall and replaced it with "The HITMAN." Weber, though, said that he had "no idea where all of that came from. I'd had a rough last three games. I don't think I had a hit." Weber was 0 for 9 against the Tides in the previous three games.

How the cookie crumbled

The Tides went into the ninth leading 7-6, only to have Elliot Johnson drill a single to left off reliever Greg Aquino to begin the inning. After Josh Johnson failed to get a bunt down with two strikes, Fernando Perez successfully executed a sacrifice bunt to move Elliot Johnson to second. Weber then stroked a sharp single up the middle on a 3-1 pitch to plate the tying run. Justin Ruggiano followed with a single up the middle and Dan Johnson launched his seventh homer of the season to give the Bulls a three-run lead.

A small village

Before Durham's highly successful ninth inning, the Bulls (29-25) had stranded 13 runners on base.

A quick start

Norfolk scored four runs in the first inning while getting only one ball out of the infield. Three walks and three infield singles nearly undid Durham starter Ben Hendrickson. The only ball to make it out of the infield came on a sharp grounder by Scott Moore, and even that ball tipped off the glove of Dan Johnson at first base.

That'll wear out a speed gun

All total, there were 377 pitches thrown in a game that lasted 3 hours and 29 minutes. Of those pitches, the Tides threw 211.

Plays of the weird

In the bottom of the eighth, Norfolk's Tike Redman appeared to make the final out of the inning when he hit a chopper back to the mound. Redman ran out the play and was ready to go on defense when he was told the ball had been ruled foul. The umpires ruled that it hit him while he was in the batter's box. That was news to Redman, who had no idea why the ball would be called foul. "I just kept shut and went back to the plate," he said. And then stroked a single to left. "Don't ask, just take what they give you," he said.

Short-lived lead

In the seventh, Norfolk's Oscar Salazar alertly went to second base on ball four when Durham catcher Josh Johnson had trouble finding the wild pitch as it raced to the backstop. Salazar ended up scoring from second on a two-out single through the left side by Chris Roberson.

On the road

The Tides head for Syracuse today for four games, then to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre for four, followed by two games in Richmond and an off day. They return to Harbor Park on June 10 to begin an eight-game homestand, beginning with four games against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.