Bisons fall to RailRiders in lopsided affair

MOOSIC, PA — Kicking off the holiday weekend from PNC Field, the Buffalo Bisons dropped their fourth in row to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders 8-1 on Friday night.

The headliner in this one was Scranton starter Matt Krook, however, who was perfect through 7.2 innings of work and was in total control throughout the night.

Krook retired the first 23 batters he faced, striking out 10 of them before an infield single by Chavez Young in the eighth broke up the perfect game and the no-hitter. Krook then walked the next batter before being lifted after a season-high 93 pitches. His final line read 7.2 innings, one hit, no runs, one walk, and 10 punchouts.

Graham Spraker made the start for Buffalo but was knocked around over his 1.1 innings of work, giving up three runs (two earned) off three hits, including a homer to Chris Owings.

The RailRiders scored in each of the first four innings, led by Estevan Florial’s three-double night. Armando Alvarez also homered for the second consecutive night, this time off Eric Yardley.

Shaun Anderson gave up an RBI single to Tim Locastro over his 2.2 frames of work, while Jeremy Beasley gave up a two-run homer to José Peraza in the seventh which made it an 8-0 game.

Tayler Saucedo was the only Bison to have a scoreless outing, though he was heavily assisted by Chavez Young who made yet another terrific leaping catch in the outfield, this time robbing Alvarez of a potential homer. Young then fired a laser from deep left field all the way back to first to double off Max McDowell and end the inning.

The Herd did score a run in the ninth after Otto López doubled home Nathan Lukes to avoid the shutout, but Zach Greene finished things off shortly after to hand the Bisons the 8-1 loss.

The Bisons and RailRiders will continue their series tomorrow evening, with the penultimate game set for 6:05 p.m. EST.