Friday night, the Buffalo Bisons and the Pawtucket Red Sox completed their doubleheader with both teams splitting the winning bill. The Herd won game one, 4-3, while the Red Sox bounced back with a 6-2 victory in game two at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, RI.Leading the way on the mound
Friday night, the Buffalo Bisons and the Pawtucket Red Sox completed their doubleheader with both teams splitting the winning bill. The Herd won game one, 4-3, while the Red Sox bounced back with a 6-2 victory in game two at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, RI.
Leading the way on the mound in game nne was T.J. Zeuch. Making just his fourth start with the Herd, the 23-year-old had a near flawless start to his outing. Allowing only one hit through the first three innings, Zeuch caused nine of the first 10 batters he faced to hit into either groundouts or doubleplays.
With Zeuch in an early grove, the BIsons used the long ball to build an early 4-0 lead. With Jordan Patterson on board in the third thanks to double, Roemon Fields sent a rocket over the short right field wall for a two-run home run, giving Buffalo a 2-0 lead. The home run was Field's first of the season and just his third in parts of four seasons as a Bison.
The momentum at the plate carried over into the fourth inning. After Billy McKinney hit his second double of the game, Reese McGuire launched a two-run home run of his own into the centerfield bleachers for a 4-0 Buffalo lead. While this would eventually be the team's final hit of the game - including the team's final 11 batters being retired by PawSox starter Erasmo Ramírez - all six of the Herd's hits were for extra-bases.
The Red Sox clawed back against Zeuch the rest of the night. After Chris Owings' solo home run in the fourth to cut the deficit to 4-1, Pawtucket put an even bigger dent on the scoreboard in the fifth. In a short sequence, consecutive singles from Cole Sturgeon and Jantzon Witte and a walk to Juan Conteno led to a bases loaded opportunity. The Red Sox cashed in with a fielder's choice from Gorkys Hernández and a sacrifice pop-out form Tzu-Wei Lin to make it a 4-3 Buffalo lead.
After earning his second strikeout of the night and a final groundout, Zeuch's night was done with 5.2 innings of work, allowing just five hits and two walks and the three runs on 91 pitches (56 strikes). Buddy Boshers came out of the bullpen for the four-out save, only allowing one walk in the process, before the game-ending doubleplay.
Game 2: Pawtucket 6, Buffalo 2
Game Two had a similar beginning for the Herd as
Richard Ureña's two-out double in the first brought home
Sócrates Brito gave Buffalo a 1-0 lead and starter
Conor Fisk retired six of his first seven batters, only allowing a double to
Sam Travis to start the bottom of the second.
But the floodgates opened in the bottom third for Pawtucket, ending Fisk's night quickly. Going through 12 batters in the frame, the Red Sox scored six runs on five hits for a 6-1 lead as
Josh Tobias drew a lead-off walk to start the inning and finished off the scoring in his second at-bat of the inning - this time against reliever
Tayler Saucedo - with a two-run single. Owings and Wittle had a RBI single apiece while Bryce Bentz and
Josh Ockimey brought in runs via walks.
In that inning alone, Fisk and Saucedo combined to allow four walks. Fisk, who was credited with the loss, was accounted for all the runs in the process and allowed 5 hits in 2.1 innings.
Buffalo finished their scoring for the night in the fifth against
Domingo Tapia when Brito hit a RBI triple into deep right field, allowing Bichette to score after his walk. The walk is the only time he has reached base in this series so far.
Despite the loss, Saucedo bounced back to finish his 2.2 innings out of the pen, as he stuck out three batters and allowed only two hits.
Corey Copping came in to throw the seventh for the Herd, retiring the side and earning a strikeout.
The Red Sox bullpen of
Darwinzon Hernandez, Tapia and
Bobby Poyner combined for five strikeouts and only one hit in their five innings of work.
BISONS NOTES: With the hit in Game Two, Brito now has a team-high 42 RBI on the season… McKinney's two-hit game in game one is now his eighth multi-hit game of the year… McGuire's two-run home-run was his first since June 29 against Syracuse… The game two loss snapped the Herd's five game winning streak… The four-day, five-game series between the teams continues Saturday night at McCoy Stadium starting at 6:15 p.m.
