Lawrence strong, but Bisons fall to Bats, 5-2
In quite the contrast from Friday night's 9-7 slugfest, Louisville's starter Raisel Iglesias outdueled recently promoted Casey Lawrence in the Bats' 5-2 victory over the Bisons on Saturday afternoon.
Iglesias kept the Bisons out of the hit column until the fourth inning and yielded just four hits overall. For the second straight contest, the Herd never held the lead against their longtime rival.
Iglesias's counterpart, the 27-year old Lawrence, joined the Bisons on Saturday morning after the Blue Jays selected the contract of scheduled starter Scott Copeland from the Herd. Making just his second career Triple-A start, Lawrence gave a thin Herd pitching staff some quality innings even in defeat. He struck out the Bats in order in the sixth inning and retired eight of the final 10 batters he faced. The righty did not issue a walk and struck out six.
The only inning Lawrence ran into real trouble was the three-run Louisville second, which was enough for Bats' victory. Louisville hit for the cycle in the frame, with Yorman Rodriguez's double coming one batter after Steve Selsky's lead-off triple. Chris Dominguez followed with his first home run of the season to left-centerfield for the 3-0 advantage.
The Bisons cut a 4-0 deficit in half in the sixth inning as Andy Burns, Matt Hague and Chris Colabello combined for three straight singles. Colabello's drive into left field gave the slugger an International League-best 18 RBI on the season. Brad Glenn's RBI-grounder two batters later gave Buffalo their second run.
Louisville added an insurance run in the ninth on Ryan LaMarre's sacrifice fly.
BISONS NOTESThe Bisons have hosted the Louisville Bats on the same day as the Kentucky Derby in five of the last seven years…Ryan Schimipf joined Casey Lawrence as Saturday promotions from Double-A. Schimpf was 1-4 with a single.