Langerhans shines in Buffalo's 5-1 loss
Ryan Langerhans was enjoying his time playing for the Sugarland Skeeters of the Independent Atlantic League.
But when Charlie Wilson, the Toronto Blue Jays' director of minor league operations, called to offer Langerhans a chance to rejoin the Buffalo Bisons, there was no reluctance on his behalf. On Thursday the Toronto Blue Jays announced they signed Langerhans and optioned him to the Herd.
The outfielder was the Opening Day starter in left field for Buffalo and hit .220 in 51 games before he was released on June 21. Langerhans used that as an opportunity to head to Texas, play for the Skeeters and do some tweaking to his swing.
That led him Coca-Cola Field Thursday night, when he made his return to the Herd in a 5-1 loss to the Lehigh Valley IronPigs in the opener of a four-game series. Langerhans noted he feels good physically, allowing him to make a highlight-reel catch.
"I told (manager Marty Brown) that when I got here, that I felt like my legs were better under me than they had been in a couple years," said Langerhans, who went 1 for 4 with a double. "Just getting to come back and see the guys that I started the season with is nice, it helps being familiar with your setting."
Brown noticed that Langerhans is now in better shape than he was earlier in the season, and the 33-year-old confirmed as much to the 8,778 in attendance. Normally a corner outfielder, Langerhans started in center field and made a bid for Bisons Catch of the Year in the second inning.
The Herd was down 2-0, but Langerhans prevented the IronPigs from extending the early lead even further. Cameron Rupp shot a 3-2 pitch to dead center, sending Langerhans back toward the warning track. He leaped up just to the left of the 404-foot marker, reached his mitt over the fence and brought the ball back into the park with a stellar catch at the apex of his jump.
"Hopefully showed Marty that my legs are under me pretty good right now, being able to make that catch out there," Langerhans said. "I told him I felt fine to play center field as long as he needs me to."
The homecoming was well-received in the clubhouse.
"Ryan's one of my favorite people in the world," Brown said. "It became a very difficult decision to let him go. But credit to him, he went away to play Independent ball and continued to play. … We're very fortunate to have him back here with his experience and leadership."
Hitting seventh, Langerhans exhibited his improved swing in the ninth inning, drilling a ground-rule double to right field for one of just five Buffalo hits. Langerhans' accentuated performance was made possible by outfielders Kevin Pillar, Anthony Gose and Moises Sierra all getting called up to the Blue Jays in the last 10 days.
Having the chance to play every day in Sugarland also enabled Langerhans to work his way back to Buffalo after a 1 for 30 slump in June preceded his release.
"Just worked a lot on getting my top hand a little stronger," Langerhans said of working on his swing for Sugarland. "That was one thing that was really holding me down earlier in the season, was that my top hand was kind of getting dead and bat head was dropping and causing a lot of the strikeouts and bad swings that I was putting on balls."
Meanwhile, not much else was working for the Bisons, specifically on offense.
Ricardo Nanita's RBI sacrifice fly in the fifth inning that scored Mike Nickeas, who led off with a double, was the only offense provided and it ended a scoreless streak that spanned 26 innings. It was just the Herd's second run in the last four games, the last one coming in the sixth inning of a 3-1 loss on Sunday. Buffalo was shut out by the Red Sox in the two succeeding games to drop the final three games of the series.
With Langerhans back and Mauro Gomez playing in his first game since Aug. 4 on Thursday, perhaps the offense can be augmented down the stretch. Gomez, whose 28 home runs is tied for the second-most in the International League, spent 18 games on the disabled list with a strained oblique. He went 1 for 3 with a single and a walk in his first game back.
The Bisons dropped to fourth place in the IL North with the loss, five games back of first-place Pawtucket. They also sit fourth in the wild-card standings, 4 ½ games behind Rochester for the top spot.
BISONS NOTES: Ricky Romero (4-7) took the loss, allowing five runs, four earned, on nine hits with six strikeouts and a walk over 5 1/3 innings…Infielder Ryan Goins was promoted to the Blue Jays earlier on Thursday…Right-hander Thad Weber (6-4, 2.63) will start for the Herd Friday against left-hander Greg Smith (8-2, 2.43). First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. Weber was recalled by the Blue Jays on Aug. 14 and optioned back to the Herd on Wednesday…Brad Glenn singled in the second, making it six of seven games he has a hit in since his promotion to Triple-A last week… Joel Carreno struck out the side in the eighth, his only inning of work.