Big inning the difference in Bisons 6-3 loss to Rochester Wednesday

Rochester, N.Y. - At ESL Ballpark on Wednesday, the Rochester Red Wings hit three home runs in the second inning against Buffalo Bisons starter Josh Stephan and the Bisons left seven men on base in a 6-3 loss.

Buffalo faced Red Wings left-hander DJ Herz and got a run against him in the first inning. Rudy Martin Jr. walked on four pitches, stole second and took third on an errant throw by Rochester catcher Kyle Hayes and scored on a hard-hit RBI single by Sean Keys.

After a 1-2-3 first inning, Cayden Wallace and Leandro Pineda hit back-to-back home runs on consecutive Stephan pitches, giving the Red Wings a 2-1 lead two batters into the bottom of the second.

Later in the inning, following a single by Sam Petersen, Liover Peguero socked a ball to left field that hit the fence just above the yellow line for a two-run home run, making it 4-1 Rochester.

With one out in the bottom of the third, Stephan plunked Trey Lipscomb, who then stole second and scored on an RBI double by Wallace, extending Rochester’s lead to 5-1.

Against the Red Wings’ Yovanny Cruz, the Herd rallied with two outs. Martin singled to center, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on a flare by Josh Kasevich, cutting Buffalo’s deficit to 5-2. A Keys single put runners at the corners, but a groundout left them stranded.

In the sixth, Yohendrick Piñango hit a leadoff double off Jack Sinclair, but two strikeouts and a ground ball to shortstop ended the threat.

Meanwhile, as Rochester batted, Stephan retired nine straight batters before hitting Leandro Pineda with a pitch with one out in the bottom of the sixth. A two-out walk finished Stephan’s outing, then Ricky Tiedemann struck out Hayes on three pitches.

After allowing three homers in the second inning, Stephan settled down, finishing with five earned runs in 5 2/3 innings on five hits, a walk and six strikeouts in his fourth outing with the Herd.

Against Eddy Yean in the top of the eighth, Keys singled for his third hit of the game and Schneider and Pinañgo walked to load the bases with zero outs. Jay Harry hit a sacrifice fly to score Keys and make it 5-3, but Sosa grounded into his second inning-ending double play of the game.

After Tiedemann worked a 1-2-3 seventh, Daniel Guerra replaced him in the bottom of the eighth. After recording the first two outs, Pineda took him deep to right for his second home run of the game, making it 6-3 Rochester.

After a Peyton Williams pinch-hit walk against Gus Varland in the ninth, Martin lined a ball to first base, where Yohandy Morales laid out, caught it and landed on the bag for a game-ending unassisted double play.

The Bisons and Red Wings will play the third game of this six-game set on Thursday at ESL Ballpark in Rochester at 6:45 p.m. RHP John Klein will get the start for the Herd. You can listen to the action on The Bet 1520 AM, the Audacy app, and bisons.com starting at 6:25 p.m. with Pat Malacaro.