Wallace drills walk-off grand slam, Bisons win 10-6 in extras

Back-and-forth. Punch-for-punch. Run-for-run.

 

It was some entertaining baseball enjoyed by 13,142 in attendance at Coca-Cola Field on Sunday afternoon.

 

It was even all game, except, the Herd had Brett Wallace.

 

Wallace clubbed a walk-off grand slam in the 12th inning, one of his three home runs in the game, to push the Bisons past Pawtucket, 10-6. The win puts the Bisons in a tie with Pawtucket for the International League wild card spot and 3.5 games back of Syracuse in the IL North, with nine games left.

 

"Obviously it's a big win for us," Bisons manager Gary Allenson said. "We determine our own destiny now. We have two more against this club here, it's nice to celebrate, but we have to go on tomorrow and play well tomorrow night."

 

Anthony Gose led off the 12th with a single and then advanced to second base on a sacrifice bunt by Johnathan Diaz. Pawtucket then intentionally walked Dan Johnson and Kevin Pillar popped out to second base. Matt Hague drew a walk and then set up Wallace's grand slam that cleared the left field fence.

 

"We just had to do whatever we could to kind of scrap and stay in that game and try and get a win in the end," Wallace said. "The guys put me in a good situation there...This locker room has been pretty great the whole time I've been here. We don't get too down or too up. It's a fun environment no matter what. Anytime you get a walk-off win like that, especially against a team like Pawtucket, it's exciting. We're going to enjoy and be ready to go again tomorrow."

 

The walk-off grand slam was just the third ever at Coca-Cola Field and Wallace became the 10th Bison to hit three home runs in a game during the modern era. Wallace joins Fernando Martinez ('12), Marco Scutaro ('99) to hit grand slams at Coca-Cola Field.

 

Wallace finish the day 4-for-6 with six RBIs and three runs scored. Also assisting the Herd's 12-hit attack was Gose (3-for-6) and Ryan Schimpf (2-for-5).

 

Buffalo took a 2-0 lead, then Pawtucket tied it. Pawtucket took a 5-3 lead, then Buffalo tied it. Pawtucket took a 6-5 lead, and, you guessed it, Buffalo tied it.

 

Trailing 5-2 in the seventh, Gose launched a game-tying, three-run homer to straightaway center field. The homer was just Gose's third of the season and was hit to deepest part of the ballpark.

 

Pawtucket scratched a run across in the eighth, but Wallace tied the game at 6-6 with his second home run of the game. The score remained deadlocked at 6-6 until Wallace won it in the 12th.

 

Sean Nolan rebounded nicely after giving up a season-high six runs in just four innings during his last outing against Rochester. Nolan was able to pitch six innings on Sunday, allowing two runs on four hits. Nolan's only blemish was a two-run homer he served up to Bryce Brentz in the sixth inning that tied the game at 2-2.

 

"He looked pretty good, he had much better command of his stuff," Allenson said of Nolan. "I think probably in the sixth there, he lost a little bit, he walked the guy, I believe on four pitches. One mistake, two runs. I'll take two runs over six innings anytime."

 

The Bisons took a 2-0 lead in the fifth inning as Brett Wallace and George Kottaras hit solo home runs.

 

Ryan Goins was hit on the elbow by a pitch in the first inning and home plate umpire Brad Myers gave a warning to both dugouts. The warning is speculated to be due to Pawtucket being unhappy with Goins scoring on a dropped third strike in the eighth inning on Saturday night. Goins left the game and is day-to-day and Xrays on his elbow are negative, according to Allenson.

 

"I thought it was a little bit late," Allenson said of the warning that was issued. "Goins is the second hitter in the bottom of the first, if he's going to get hit with the first pitch he sees, I'm told that maybe it was because of the eighth inning, then there should have been warnings before the game even started...If he (Myers) is going to throw out warnings to both sides he must have thought he was throwing at him. My point was: If you thought he was throwing at him from last night, then he shouldn't be in the game. We'll move on."

 

Buffalo and Pawtucket play the third game of a four-game set on Monday. Left-hander Brad Mills (1-0, 3.10 ERA) will start for the Bisons against Pawtucket's Matt Barnes (7-8, 3.89 ERA).

 

"Every game obviously is important now, every game, every at-bat, every pitch" Allenson said. "That's when the game's fun."

 

BISONS NOTES:

Kevin Pillar doubled in the seventh inning for his team-leading and IL-leading 39th double of the season. Bisons are now 11-6 in extra-inning games this season. The Bisons have won five in a row and are 24-9 in their last 33 games.