By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
It was just a matter of Zack Littell stopping by with the Durham Bulls.
The former Eastern Alamance pitching standout had his major league rehabilitation assignment with the Bulls officially end Wednesday when he was reinstated from the injury list for the Tampa Bay Rays’ game at Oakland.
Littell pitched in three games for Triple-A Durham – all in last week’s series at Memphis – prior to the roster move.
The right-hander had been on Tampa Bay’s injury list since May 24 because of what was listed as “shoulder fatigue.” He had a couple of rough outings at Memphis, giving up four runs across 1 2/3 innings in the first two stints combined before a shutout inning Sunday.
“There was a little rust,” Bulls manager Michael Johns said.
He wasn’t around Durham long before he was summoned to the West Coast to rejoin the big-league Rays.
Littell, who has had major-league time with the Minnesota Twins and San Francisco Giants in previous years, began the season in the Texas Rangers organization at Triple-A before a trade to the Boston Red Sox. A week later, he was picked up off waivers by Tampa Bay.
