Martinez homers yet again as Bisons bash Clippers, 16-4

The Bisons bats are SCORCHING hot!

The Herd mashed four more home runs and pounded out 16 runs on 17 hits as they closed out a series win in Columbus with an emphatic 16-4 victory over the Clippers, Sunday afternoon from Huntington Park.

Addison Barger, Leo Jimenez, Luis De Los Santos and -who else- Orelvis Martinez all homered while Spencer Horwitz added four hits and three RBI as Buffalo took the series in Columbus, 4-2. The win also improves the Bisons road record to an impressive 8-3 to start the season.

The Herd used the home runs early to pull in front before an onslaught of offense saw them score 11 times over the game's final two innings. It took just three batters for Buffalo to take a 2-0 lead as Barger annihilated a 382-foot homer out of the ballpark in right.

Jimenez then followed in the second inning with his first of the year, going the opposite way out to right to give the Herd a 3-1 lead. De Los Santos took his turn with two outs in the third inning with a 398-foot blast out to center that left his bat a 106.6 miles per hour.

The game then seemed to slow down as there was no scoring in the middle innings and the Bisons barely escaped the seventh with a 5-4 lead as Brendon Little struck out John Rodriguez and got a line out from Jhonkensy Noel with the bases loaded to end the inning.

The game then quickly got absurd as the Bisons scored seven times in the eighth and four more times in the ninth to blow out the Clippers. With the bases loaded and one out in the eighth, Casey Candaele went to his bench and Nathan Lukes came through with a pinch-hit two run double for the 7-4 advantage. Three pitches later, Horwitz collected his fourth hit of the day when he dropped his own two-run double just inside the left field foul line for a 9-4 Bisons lead.

Faster than anyone could keep up, Martinez extended his hit streak to 15 games with an RBI-single and then he came around on yet another RBI-double, this one from Barger, giving him an impressive 21 RBI in the Bisons first 20 games of the season. Payton Henry, who led off the inning with a single, hit a line drive into left for his second hit of the frame to plate the Herd’s seventh run of the eighth.

Then in the ninth, Martinez put the exclamation point on his dominant week in Ohio’s capital. Yet another home run, his fifth in five games, scored three of the four runs in the inning and capped the 16-4 triumph.

During his 15-game hit streak, Martinez has averaged .361 at the plate. In the six games at Columbus, the infielder averaged .357 (10-28) with eight runs scored, a double, five home runs, 13 RBI and a .929 slugging pct.

The Bisons hit 15 home runs in the series, and actually in the last five games as they did not homer in Tuesday’s series opener. The homers traveled nearly 5,900 combined feet, well over a mile in total distance.

The Bisons used five pitchers to secure the win over the Clippers with Andrew Bash working the first four frames and allowing three runs on just three hits. He struck out four.

The win for Buffalo went to Luis Quinones (3-0), who worked 2.1 innings of work and allowed a run on three walks, but limited the damage against him by not allowing a hit.

The Bisons will have Monday off as usually before opening a six-game series against the Iowa Cubs on Tuesday night at 6:05 p.m. It’s a TWOsday, featuring $2 Sahlen’s Hot Dogs all game long, compliments of TasteNY.