NOTES: Bisons on the attack early in season

Since opening day, the Buffalo Bisons’ and manager Casey Candaele’s game plan for their pitchers has been simple: Attack.

And just nine games into the 2021 season the Bisons’ starting pitchers have made life easy on Candaele.

“Nowadays we expect to put them out there and go after hitters and throw strikes,” said Candaele. “As long as they're attacking the zone, they all got good stuff, and so when they're out there doing that, usually things end up pretty well.”

The Bisons’ six different starters have already produced five quality starts, striking out 6.3 batters per game and giving up just 1.3 runs per.

“They are attacking the zone, which is very important and going after for hitters and then using stuff to put them away,” said Candaele.

The ace of the rotation has turned out to be Toronto Blue Jays' first-round pick in 2019, Alek Manoah.

Just two starts into his Triple-A career the 6’6” righty has pitched 12 innings, struck out 17 and given up no runs. Manoah’s 0.42 WHIP ranks him second in the Triple-A East.

“I just trust the stuff and just go attack and have some fun,” said Manoah.

He has encapsulated Candaele’s attack the strike zone mentality starting 28 of the 41 batters he has faced with strikes and throwing 99 of his 157 pitches for strikes, 63%. Batters are hitting .081 against in his two victorious starts.

“The game plan was let's just try and go out and attack hitters,” said Manoah. “Try to get hitters in 0-1 or 0-2 and try to get, you know, some early ground ball outs and that is what gets you deep into the game and that's what can get gets you through the lineup three times.”

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The idea to attack has translated to the bats, as well.

The Bisons have scored first in seven of their nine games and have scored 24 runs in the first three innings of those games, 2.7 runs per.

“If you could get on the board early, I mean it sets the tone and gives you early momentum in a game,” said Candaele. “And then you just try to carry to carry that momentum out and we've been doing a good job of putting pressure on the other team early in the game.”

The Bisons have had plenty of opportunities to drive runs home early thanks in large part to the top of their lineup featuring Forrest Wall in the leadoff spot and Breyvic Valera behind him.

In eight starts at the top of the lineup Wall, traded to the Blue Jays in 2018, has reached base four times to start the game. In addition, he has accumulated five multi-hit games, including a 4-for-6 performance against the Worcester Red Sox.

Valera, in his eight starts hitting out of the two-hole, has reached four times in the first inning and produced three multi-hit games while hitting .333 for the season with 12 RBI.

“When teams are forced to play catch up all the time it kind of puts the pressure on them to get up to the plate and do things that maybe they haven't they aren't accustomed to doing,” said Candaele. “So, I think getting an early lead and being the first one to score and makes a big difference.”

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Overall, the bats have been inconsistent but are beginning to come around early in the season.

Through the first three games of the season, the Bisons were 3-0, averaging seven runs a game and accumulated ten hits with runners in scoring position. The Bisons faltered in their next four games losing three of them and struggled to gather clutch hits going 8-57 with runners in scoring position.

The Bisons began to bring their bats around Wednesday night scoring twelve runs against the Red Wings, producing five hits with runners in scoring position and five runs in the first three innings.

Candaele attributes the success to his player's professionalism and hopes the return of their offense is here to stay.

“The guys have gotten to this level and they are aware of what takes place in games, what you are accomplishing and what you're, you're not accomplishing,” said Candaele. “So, I think the ability just to let games go and come back, see the next game has a new one and a new challenge I think that's kind of what these guys are about so it's pretty cool to see.”