Bisons rally past Tides for 5-3 win
The Bisons had the two-out magic working in a 5-3 victory over the Norfolk Tides on a beautiful Thursday afternoon at Coca-Cola Field.
Buffalo scored four times with two men out, including three times in the fifth inning, to rally from a 3-1 deficit and improve to an International League-best 14-7 on the season.
Hits had been hard to come by for the Herd as Norfolk picked up shutout wins of 3-0 and 1-0 to begin the series. Even Buffalo's 2-1 victory on Wednesday night came via a Tides' error and a passed ball on an intentional walk.
But the heart of the Bisons order got things going on Thursday. Matt Hague, Andy Wilkins and Chris Colabello produced back-to-back-to-back RBI-knocks in the fifth inning to give the Bisons a 4-3 edge. Hague singled Caleb Gindl home with his shot through the left side of the infield. He then raced to the plate all the way from first base when Wilkins doubled to the right field corner. Colabello broke his bat on his soft line drive that found fair territory just inside the left field foul line to score Wilkins for the last lead the Herd would need.
There was still an element of wackiness in this game, as well. Buffalo got an insurance run in the seventh when Tides' left fielder Chris Parmelee retrieved Colabello's double to the wall and threw to an unoccupied second base. The ball bounced all the way to the padding past the Bisons dugout, allowing Wilkins to score from first.
Todd Redmond started for the Bisons and was sharp early. In his first outing since April 15 while with the Blue Jays, the righty faced the minimum through the first three innings of work but ran into trouble in the fourth. Five straight Tides batters reached against the righty, with Dariel Alvarez and Michael Almanzar picking up RBI-hits to erase Buffalo's early 1-0 lead.
The Tides built a 3-1 lead, but the usually stingy Bisons bullpen lived up to its 1.55 ERA once again. Rob Rasmussen was given the well-deserved win after tossing a Bisons' season-high 3.2 innings of shutout relief. The southpaw retired the final six batters he faced and struck out three total batters.
Gregory Infante worked a 1-2-3 eighth inning and Bo Schultz worked around a one-out hit in the ninth inning for his fifth save of the season.