Bisons fall 4-1 to Louisville
The Bisons scored a run on the first pitch they saw. And then Louisville silenced the Herd's bats.
The Bisons were shutout on six hits after Jim Negrych's lead-off home run in a 4-1 loss to Louisville on Thursday night at Coca-Cola Field.
As it turns out, knocking the starter out of the game was the worst thing for the Bisons. Three batters after Negrych's homer, Luis Jimenez lined a comebacker off the foot of Bats' starter Armando Galarraga. The starter had to leave the game and was replaced by reliever Yohan Pino.
Pino then dominated the high-powered Herd offense. He allowed just four hits and struck out three in a whopping 6.1 innings of relief work. Buffalo did not advance a runner to third base against the reliever.
Louisville got all the offense they would need in a three-run third inning. Run-scoring hits from Billy Hamilton and Neftali Soto gave the Bats the lead and Felix Perez added insurance with and RBI-ground out.
Former Bison Mike Hessman singled and scored on a base hit from Josh Fellhauer to add even more support in the sixth inning.
Claudio Vargas suffered his first loss of the season, striking out six over six innings. Reliever Mickey Storey fanned six batters in three innings of shutout relief.
BISONS NOTES:Anthony Gose finished the game 2-4…The Bisons had been 4-0 when Claudio Vargas starts for the team…Before the game, the Blue Jays recalled reliver Brad Lincoln from the Herd.