Blalock fans 12, but Jacksonville rallies past Durham 7-3

Bradley Blalock delivered the sharpest strikeout night of his Triple-A stint, but the headline performance still ended in a Durham loss. The right-hander fanned 12 over six innings Saturday at the DBAP, the first double-digit strikeout game of his career, yet Jacksonville left with a 7-3 win after turning one inning into the difference and another into separation.

Blalock gave up a two-out home run to Homer Bush Jr. in the first, but he settled in immediately after that. He retired the next 15 hitters in order and, at one point, struck out seven straight Jacksonville batters. By the end of his outing, he had allowed three runs on only two hits and one walk, a line that reflected both dominance and the damage from a handful of late-connection swings that the Jumbo Shrimp made count.

Durham briefly answered enough to keep the game interesting. Gavin Lux drilled a two-run homer in the sixth to pull the Bulls within 4-3 and give the home club a shot at flipping the night around. Instead, Jacksonville answered with three more runs in the seventh, and Jesús Bastidas kept leading the attack with a 3-for-4 night and three RBIs. Jacob Berry drove in two runs with a single in the fourth, and Johnny Olmstead added a two-run hit in the seventh to finish off the surge.

The loss went to Logan Workman, who labored through five innings and 100 pitches while working around traffic. Workman entered at 0-3 with a 6.91 ERA and finished the night at 0-4. Durham did get a clean first inning from Alex Cook, but Jacksonville kept stacking productive at-bats in the middle frames and forced the Bulls to pay for every mistake.

The result also sharpened the contrast with Friday night’s 12-0 Jacksonville shutout, when Durham managed only an infield single by Lux. Saturday brought more offense and a much better outing from Blalock, but not enough complete support to change the outcome. Jacksonville moved to 16-16, Durham dropped to 11-21, and the Bulls were left sorting out how a breakout strikeout performance could still disappear into another lopsided final score.