The good news is that after throwing just 57 percent of his pitches for strikes in the majors so far this season, 67 percent of his pitches (72 strikes in 107 pitches) were strikes in Friday's start for the Bulls. He probably didn't use those pitches particularly efficiently in 5 1/3 innings, but there was probably some progress made.
Triple-A Durham Bulls (26-14)
Blake Snell returned to Durham and struck out 12 in a 6-1 Bulls win. He gave up a run with two outs in the first and generally avoided trouble all night, but he didn't record a 1-2-3 inning in his start.