Late homer does in Bisons, 5-4
There would be no walk-off magic for the Buffalo Bisons this time.
After completing ninth-inning comebacks with walk-off wins twice in the last two weeks, the Herd couldn't add another to the list Monday night against the Pawtucket Red Sox.
One of the Herd's recent late-inning rallies was Saturday in the series opener against the Red Sox. Mike Nickeas capped a three-run ninth by hitting a two-run walk-off homer in a 5-3 win. This time it was Buffalo surrendering over a late lead on Dan Butler's two-run home run in the eighth en route to a 5-4 PawSox triumph before 6,590 at Coca-Cola Field to take a 2-1 edge in the four-game series.
Chien-Ming Wang gave the Herd 7 2/3 solid innings of work, leaving the game after his 103rd pitch, a single by Alex Hassan.
John Stilson relieved Wang, who allowed four runs on five hits and struck out five. The right-handed reliever's first pitch of the night - to Butler - landed over the left-center field fence, plating the final two runs of the contest. He took the blown save and the loss with the pitch.
"It's unfortunate," manager Marty Brown said. "Lost his focus on the first pitch. … (Butler) has the ability to pull the ball for a home run, you want him to go the other way. (Stilson) was trying to go away and it leaked back over the middle and it cost us."
The Bisons did make a bid at making it a come-from-behind victory in their favor. They overcame multiple deficits, chipping away to take their first lead at 4-3 in the seventh on a Mike McCoy leadoff home run just inside the foul pole in left.
At the moment, it appeared McCoy was the hero. But the Bisons were unable to make McCoy's fourth dinger of the year stand as the game-winner, and they are now 43-5 when leading after seven innings.
"It felt good for a little bit," McCoy said. "… It's a tough loss."
Faced with trailing 2-0 in the third, Clint Robinson ignited Buffalo's offense, and sustained a hot bat the rest of the night. He led off the frame with a double and would score on Anthony Gose's lined double down the line into the left-field bullpen. Robinson, who went 3 for 4, singled home Jim Negrych the next inning to nod the score at two.
Again the Herd displayed its grind-it-out mentality in the fifth, answering Will Middlebrooks' fifth-inning solo homer immediately. Ricardo Nanita, who had three hits and was a triple shy of the cycle, launched one over the right-field fence the next half-inning to set up McCoy's go-ahead smash.
Brown noted Nanita gave a stagnant offense of late a spark at the top of the order in the three-hole. In the Bisons' three games prior to Monday, they scored just six runs on 12 hits. They matched that three-game total with 12 hits in the loss, while Pawtucket managed just seven.
"Once they had the lead, we just kept pecking away," Brown said. "It was nice to see our offense better tonight. Hopefully we can build on that for tomorrow."
Though pleased with the augmented results, Brown would like a better approach to the offense, speaking chiefly about pitch selection. It's not always swinging at the best pitches that contributed, Brown felt, to the Herd leaving 10 men on base and going 3 for 12 with runners in scoring position.
Indicative of how the night went, Buffalo nearly battled back again in the ninth. Nanita got on with a two-out double but, representing the tying run, was stranded at third to end the game.
"We had a lot of hits and not a lot of runs to show for it," Brown said. "Our situations, we could have had a better plan. But I think we played a good, solid ballgame, I can live with that. They got a pitch and Butler hit it out."
"We have to do a better job of, we get guys on, we have to get those runs in because these teams are going to score and those runs are really important, as it showed tonight, in these kind of games," Robinson said.
The affair was a two-game swing for Buffalo in the wild-card standings. It now sits 2 ½ games behind Pawtucket for the International League's lone wild card spot.
There is plenty of time and opportunity to make up for the tough defeat, though. The Bisons have 29 games left. Five of those are matchups with the PawSox, and all of their remaining games are against IL North opponents, whom they are 28-22 against this year.
"This team's not going to quit," Robinson said. "We're right there on the edge of making the playoffs and we're just going to keep battling."
BISONS NOTES: The series finale is set for Tuesday at 7:05 p.m…Earlier on Monday, the International League's home run leader, Mauro Gomez, was placed on the disabled list, retroactive to Saturday when he left a game early with a strained left oblique…The Bisons are 5-6 against the PawSox this season…It was the Bisons' first multi-home run game since July 10…Andy LaRoche and Sean Ochinko had two hits apiece.