Another minor league title for Durham

At least the Rays have one champion in the family in 2009.

Building on their International League crown secured last week, Durham beat Pacific Coast League titlist Memphis 5-4 Tuesday night in the Triple-A National Championship Game in Oklahoma City.

The Bulls won in about as unorthodox a manner as you can imagine, with Michel Hernandez doubling to lead off the bottom of the 11th inning, a wild pitch moving pinch-runner Rashad Eldridge to third, and another wild pitch by a different Memphis pitcher bringing home the deciding run.

It all played out on ESPN2, giving fans who flipped over from another Rays loss a chance to catch some familiar and soon-to-be-familiar faces representing the Tampa Bay organization.

From one-time Rays Joe Dillon and Justin Ruggiano to expected future standouts such as Jeremy Hellickson (who got the start on the mound) and Desmond Jennings, the Bulls were able to field an intriguing team Tuesday night.

That in itself was a considerable achievement given the number of players the Rays siphoned from their Triple-A squad since the first of September. It's safe to say Durham would have felt a lot better about its chances heading into the playoffs if the likes of Wade Davis, Dale Thayer, Chris Richard and Reid Brignac were still at their disposal. Not to mention the absence of team MVP Jon Weber, who has been in Europe the last few weeks representing Team USA in the World Cup.

But the Bulls did just fine without them, including a sweep of Scranton in the best-of-five Governor's Cup finals series last week to secure the crown.

"I think it's awesome," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "It's unbelievable, because we just took so many guys and there was so much movement there. To be able to hang in there like they did is pretty remarkable."

With no need for reinforcements, Maddon reiterated that he doesn't expect to call up any more players now that the Bulls are done.

"We have enough bodies right now," he said of his 32-player active roster.

Hanging loose

Andy Sonnanstine hasn't had much to do for the past week, now that he is officially out of starts and serving as a long reliever.

He threw a bullpen session Tuesday afternoon in an effort to stay loose, but the nature of his role to finish the season is inherently unpredictable.

"I have been getting instruction from a bunch of the guys - (Russ) Springer and Wheels (Dan Wheeler) especially - as far as when to be prepared," Sonnanstine said. "But shoot, for the past week we haven't needed it. I'm just kind of trying to stay sharp and finish out the season, and I guess in my mind go out and try to battle for a spot in the rotation."

Counting down

Carl Crawford was out of the lineup Tuesday, with Fernando Perez getting the start in his place. Maddon said he wanted to get Crawford off the turf, and took advantage of the Mariners starting LHP Ryan Rowland-Smith to do so (though Crawford was 3-for-7 in his career vs. the lefty).

By giving Crawford a breather Tuesday on the heels of Monday's off day and another coming Thursday, the speedster should be fully rested for the closing stretch. Regardless, it shouldn't be long before he gets over the hump to 60 stolen bases for the first time. He has been sitting on a career-high-tying 59 steals since Friday.