Buller, Lilly help their team along winning ways

Hometown pair continue to ply their trade in professional baseball

By Mike Hackworth

(Updated: Friday, June 20, 2008, 5:40 PM)

It's been a month since former Yosemite Badgers' catcher Dayton Buller joined the Fresno Grizzlies, the San Francisco Giants' triple A affiliate.

Sharing backstop duties with two other catchers, Buller has played in 19 of the Grizzlies' last 49 games batting .229 with 11 hits in 48 at bats.

But Buller is hitting .300 against right handers and .286 with runners in scoring position.

Buller showed the Grizzlies another side of his offense, filling a pinch hitting role in his last four games, June 9-12.

In those four games, Buller is one for two2 with three RBIs and has one base on balls, a sacrifice fly and has struck out once.

On June 9, Buller's sacrifice fly drove in the winning run in a 3-2 win over Colorado Springs. The pinch hit two run home run was the difference in another 3-2 victory over Colorado.

The Grizzlies sent catcher Barry Gunther to Extended Spring training on June 12 and suspended catcher Eliezer Alfonzo is eligible to return to the team on Sunday.

With Guillermo Rodriguez and Eli Whiteside already on the roster and Todd Jennings on the DL the team will have to make some adjustments.

Ted Lilly

After starting the season 1-3, Lilly has slowly turned things around going 6-2 over his last 10 starts.

Lilly has dropped his ERA from over 6.50 to a more respectable 4.76.

Along the way Lilly has averaged 6.5 strikeouts a game with 10 against Arizona on May 9 and 11 against the Padres on May 14.

Along that stretch, the Chicago Cubs have gone 28-14 and are 3 1/2 games ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League East with an overall record of 45-26.