Braxton Garrett fans nine as Jacksonville blanks Durham 8-0

Braxton Garrett made the night look far bigger than a routine Triple-A start, striking out a season-high nine over six scoreless innings as Jacksonville blanked Durham 8-0 on June 17 at Durham Bulls Athletic Park. The Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, who entered at 38-32, evened the series and left the Bulls at 28-43 after Brody Hopkins absorbed the loss.

Garrett’s line told the story from the first inning. Rece Hinds and Graham Pauley each walked with two outs, Deyvison De Los Santos was hit by a pitch, and Andrew Pintar followed with a two-run single that put Jacksonville in front before Durham could settle in. From there, Garrett kept the Bulls from stringing together any real pressure, turning what could have become a competitive home game into a clean runway for Jacksonville’s bullpen.

Two relievers finished the shutout, with Zach Brzykcy and Jake Walkinshaw each working a scoreless inning to close the door. Durham never found an answer after Jacksonville established command, and the box score reflected the gap in execution: Garrett improved to 2-2, while Hopkins fell to 1-6. The attendance at the DBAP was 3,876, but the larger number for the night was Garrett’s nine strikeouts, a season high that underscored how quickly a polished major-league arm can take control of a Triple-A lineup.

For Durham, the loss was more than a single bad night. Jacksonville carried the momentum from this 8-0 win into the rest of the homestand, winning the next four games as well, 11-5 in a rain-shortened game on June 18, 5-3 on June 19, 2-1 on June 20 and 11-5 on June 21. What began as a shutout at the DBAP became the clearest warning sign of the series: once Jacksonville got ahead, Durham had no margin to recover.