Bisons blanked in series finale with RailRiders, 8-0

On the same day their parent club scores 18 runs and slugs eight home runs, the Buffalo Bisons’ bats fell silent in an 8-0 defeat in the series finale with the RailRiders from Trenton Thunder Ballpark. The loss, their fourth in six games this week against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, means the Herd lost its first series this year at their home away from home in Trenton, NJ.

Predominately a reliever at the Triple-A level, Nick Nelson made his first start this season for the RailRiders and set the tone for what would be a long day for Bisons' hitters. Nelson worked 3.2 innings allowing just two hits, walked one and struck out three on 57 pitches.

The bullpen took over for Nelson and continued to stifle Bisons' hitters as the four relievers used produced 5.1 innings of shutout pitching, striking out five and allowing only six hitters to reach base on five hits and one walk.

The closest any Bisons' hitters came to touching home plate came on a Richard Urena two-out triple that bounced off the top of the right-field wall. Urena put together one of his best offensive games of the season gathering two hits, his fourth and fifth hits in his last three games.

Bisons started Anthony Kay for his second outing of the series. The southpaw, who was originally joined the Bisons on a rehab assignment but then was optioned to the Herd on June 3, made his fifth start of the year for Buffalo.

After three scoreless frames that included six strikeouts, things unraveled for Kay and the Bisons in the fourth as he allowed seven batters to reach, including a game-breaking opposite-field three-run home-run by Derek Dietrich and an RBI-double off the base of the leftfield wall by Luke Voit. By the time the inning was over, the RailRiders led 6-0.

Another two-run home run by Ryan LaMarre in the eighth extended the RailRiders' lead to 8-0, which was more than enough offense to bury the Bisons who produced only seven hits and seven opportunities to hit with runners in scoring position.

With the loss, the Bisons fall to 3-7 against the RailRiders and back to .500 on the season, 17-17, but they won’t face the New York Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate again until the last day of August.

After a 5-7 homestand, the Bisons will head back out on the road starting with a six-game series against the Rochester Red Wings beginning Tuesday with the first pitch scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

Series Notes:

In the face of a four games to two series loss, there was still a good bit for the Bisons to build off of and their fans to feel good about.

While taking on the 23-11 and Triple-A East Northeast division leading RailRiders, the Bisons led in four of the six games and held the number one scoring offense in the division coming into the series, 5.5 runs per game, to below their scoring average in three of the games, including a game three shut-out. The Bisons' pitching staff also continues to lead all of Triple-A East in ERA, 3.33.

Offensively, multiple Bisons broke out of slumps including Dilson Herrera, three hits in ten games coming into the series, and Cullen Large, two hits in his last ten games prior to the series.

Herrera produced three hits in five starts and reached base a total of six times while hitting as high as second in the lineup.

Large had seven hits and walked once while playing all six games. He also drove in six runs and played a valuable part in the team's pair of victories hitting leadoff and second in the lineup.

With pitching continuing to dampen opposing hitter’s bats and the Bisons beginning to fill holes in their lineup the victories will hopefully begin to pile up in the second half of June.