Mike Costanzo had a three-run homer and a single for four RBI, leading the Louisville Bats to an 8-4 win over the visiting Durham Bulls in the opener of their best-of-5 first-round series of the Governors’ Cup Playoffs.

• Photo courtesy Durham Bulls
• Bulls outfielder Leslie Anderson

All five of those players spent most of the season with the Carolina Mudcats.

Leslie Anderson led the defending national champion Bulls with a homer and a single for three RBI. J.J. Furmaniak added two hits for the Bulls.
Chad Reineke picked up the win for Louisville, with Richard De Los Santos taking the loss.

Game 2 is on Thursday night at Louisville Slugger Field, with the remainder of the series in Durham.

Game times and matchups:

Game One, Wednesday, Sept. 8, 6:05 p.m., Louisville Slugger Field: Richard De Los Santos (Bulls) @ Chad Reineke (Bats).

Game Two, Thursday, Sept. 9, 6:05 p.m., Louisville Slugger Field: Aneury Rodriguez (Bulls) @ Tom Cochran (Bats).

Game Three, Friday, Sept. 10, 7:05 p.m., Durham Bulls Athletic Park: TBA (Bats) @ Alex Cobb (Bulls).

Game Four (if necessary), Saturday, Sept. 11, 7:05 p.m., Durham Bulls Athletic Park: Ben Jukich (Bats) @ Bobby Livingston (Bulls).

Game Five (if necessary), Sunday, Sept. 12, 5:05 p.m., Durham Bulls Athletic Park: TBA (Bats) @ Paul Phillips (Bulls).

(Note: the Bats' starters are speculation only, based on Louisville's rotation at the end of the regular season. Durham Bulls manager Charlie Montoyo has not, at the time of writing this preview, named his starters beyond Game Two.)

For the third year in a row, the Durham Bulls will face the Louisville Bats in the first round of International League playoffs. Charlie Montoyo's Bulls beat Louisville manager Rick Sweet's Bats in 2008 and 2009. What's more, the Bulls have bested the Bats in the two other playoff series between the two teams, in 1998 and 2003. So there is a rich history of Durham dominance in the post-season.

All of that means nothing, of course. Not only are these two teams changed from previous years, they aren't all that close to the corporations they were as recently as July, when they last played. (The Bulls took three or four games from Louisville at the DBAP then, after splitting a four-game June visit to Louisville.) For Bulls fans worried about the team's depleted roster, that's really nothing compared to what has become of Louisville's. There are details after the jump about the players and pitching matchups.

There is, perhaps, one thing that, according to Bulls manager Charlie Montoyo, might favor the Bats in this series, regardless of how the teams match up. Last season, after eliminating Louisville, Durham went on to beat the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees to claim the Governors Cup—it was a measure of revenge for Scranton's 2008 triumph over the Bulls in that same competition. After this past Monday's season finale, Montoyo was musing on the upcoming series. "You know what I was thinking last year? I'm not saying [the Bats] are going to beat us, obviously; but when [the Bulls] played Scranton [in the 2009 finals], I was thinking, 'It's my turn now. There's no way you're going to beat us two years in a row.'" He paused. "I'm hoping Rick Sweet doesn't feel the same way."

The thing is, of course, that Durham has already beaten Louisville two years in a row. So does that make the third try a charm for the West Division champs against Durham, or does it simply assert a mysterious domination by one team over another?

We'll know in the next few days. Games One and Two are Louisville; the Bulls bussed up there on Tuesday (an 11-hour ride). If you're planning on tuning in, note the early start time at Slugger Field both Wednesday and Thursday, 6:05 p.m.—some concessions, including beer for a while, are just $1, too, if you happen to be going there for the games.

Details of the series to come are after the jump.

Former Durham Bulls right-hander Jeremy Hellickson has been named Baseball America’s 2010 Minor League player of the year, marking the fourth time since 1996 a Bulls player has taken the honor.

• Photo courtesy Durham Bulls
• Bulls pitcher Jeremy Hellickson

Hellickson (12-3, 2.45) had 123 strikeouts before being recalled to Tampa Bay in August. He pitched for Team USA in the All-Star Futures Game, was selected to the International League’s mid-season and post-season all-star teams and was named the IL’s pitcher of the year.

The Bulls also learned of another honor on Tuesday when veteran outfielder Chris Richard was named batter of the week for the final week of the season. Richard, who is in his fourth season with the club and has the Triple-A franchise career record of 84 homers, hit .360 with three homers, 11 RBI, his league-leading 39th double of the season and his first triple over the season’s final eight days.

Durham, the defending Triple-A National Champion, opens its best-of-5 series in the first round of the Governors’ Cup Playoffs on Wednesday night at Louisville.

• www.milb.com
• Paul Phillips saved the day for the Bulls

On Labor Day, the season finale, the Bulls played a modified version of the single-bat game instead, with most (but not all) of the players using Justin Ruggiano's stylish black model. Didn't matter: the game went to extra innings, anyway, except that it was tied 5-5 instead of 0-0, and it began to take on the taut intensity of something very like a playoff game. The players started using their own bats somewhere along the way. They stopped hacking at pitches early in the count and started to care about winning after a je m'en fous early going. And when the Bulls loaded the bases with no outs in the 12th, the crowd of 8,835 got into it. Leslie Anderson, who had already had two singles to start emerging from a minor late-season slump, did not disappoint them: He hit the first pitch he saw from Mike Hinckley, laboring into his fourth inning of relief work, into right field for a game-winning, season-ending single. The Bulls won, 6-5, and finished the 2010 season with a visually pleasing, league-best 88-55 record.

This is going to be a short (for me) post. I will be back before the Bulls' Wednesday playoff opener at Louisville with a series preview that should have a decent amount of meat on it. If you are not planning on making the jump, what you need to know about yesterday's game can be summed up in two words: Paul Phillips. For the second straight year, the Michigander right-hander came to Durham from Double-A Montgomery just before the end of the regular season, and for the second straight year he paid immediate dividends. In relief of starter Bobby Livingston, who gave Montoyo a serviceable six-inning, three-run performance, Phillips threw six innings himself. He allowed two runs, and although those two runs tied the game, he then settled into a remarkably effective groove, retiring 13 in a row in a long stretch to conserve the tired relief corps—and, not incidentally, to collect the win. Third baseman Angel Chavez was up and throwing in the Durham bullpen for the third straight game; and for the third straight game, the Bulls' late-inning prowess made his emergency appearance unnecessary.

Based on this afternoon's performance, Paul Phillips earned a spot in Montoyo's post-season starting rotation. More about that, and other thoughts, after the jump.