Schwinden, Bisons Blank Wings, 5-0
Schwinden struck out five and pitched shutout baseball into the sixth inning in the Herd's 5-0 shutout victory over the Red Wings from Frontier Field. The righty allowed just five hits in collecting his first win at the Triple-A level.
Schwinden was promoted on April 16 from Binghamton. He worked two games in relief for the B-Mets, but with Pat Misch and Dillon Gee in the big leagues at the time and Boof Bonser out for the season, Schwinden was inserted into a depleted Bisons rotation. The move has certainly paid off.
On Tuesday, he threw 59 of his 85 pitches for strikes and walked just one batter. After benefitting from a big defensive play from the recently returned Jesus Feliciano, Schwinden didn't allow another runner to reach third base.
The Bisons took a 1-0 first-inning lead on Fernando Martinez's two-out double. In the bottom half of the frame, the Red Wings mounted their only true threat of the game. With two men on base, Rene Tosoni singled to right field. Feliciano, promoted Tuesday after an eight-game stint with the B-Mets, threw a strike to catcher Ronny Paulino to nail the speedy Ben Revere trying to score.
Schwinden then fanned Jeff Bailey to end the threat and cruised the rest of the way.
The Bisons got more offense from the usual places. Nick Evans had three hits, including a two-run home run in the seventh inning that gave Buffalo a 3-0 lead. Kirk Nieuwenhuis homered in the eighth to extend his hit streak to 16 games.
Ruben Tejada's RBI-double in the ninth inning gave the Bisons the 5-0 win.
BISONS NOTES: At 16 games, Nieuwenhuis's hit streak matches the 16-gamer compiled by Javier Castillo during the 2009 season. It's now the longest since Franklin Gutierrez and Ben Francisco each hit in 19 straight in 2007...D.J. Carrasco also joined Bisons on Tuesday. He pitched an inning of shutout relief in the game, but will join the club's rotation in the coming days.