Clean Sweep: SWB blanks Buffalo twice

BUFFALO, NY (June 5, 2019) - The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders pitching staff combined to face just three batters over the minimum Wednesday night against the Buffalo Bisons, notching a pair of wins with 14 shutout innings over their International League North Division rivals.

RHP Chance Adams got the start for SWB in Game One of the night and scattered three hits and a walk over seven shutout innings. It was the fifth straight quality start for Adams who has picked up four wins in that time and has surrendered just 3 ER on 17 hits in 31.2 IP while lowering his ERA from 10.32 after three starts (13 ER in 11.1 IP) to 3.35. It was Adams first career shutout victory.
 
The offense in the first game came from RBI hits from Breyvic Valera and Brad Miller, plus a sacrifice fly by Ryan McBroom for the 3-0 win.
 
Game Two featured Nestor Cortes allowing just a one-out single by Jordan Patterson in the third inning over his 6.0 innings of work. The southpaw was making his first appearance for the RailRiders since early May, spending about a month's worth of time up in the big leagues with the Yankees, and looked like he hadn't missed a beat. He struck out eight batters on the night and has now allowed just two hits over 13.1 innings while striking out 17 men the last two times he has taken the ball for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
 
Overall, Buffalo hitters were 4-for-44 (.091 AVG) on the night with one walk (.111 OBP) and never had a runner reach second base the entire evening. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre entered Wednesday night with a pair of shutouts over the first 54 games of the season, and with a pair of shutout wins over the Buffalo Bisons they are now just one shutout behind the Durham Bulls (5 SHO) for the league lead in that category.
 
The doubleheader sweep- the team's second such sweep of the season- coupled with losses by Pawtucket and Syracuse gives SWB its largest lead in the division in 2019 at 5.0 games. They have matched their season best mark of 10 games above .500 with the win.
 
Scranton Wilkes-Barre and Buffalo complete their six-game, four-day series Thursday evening with a standard-issue ballgame at Sahlen Field. RHP Drew Hutchison (4-3, 5.65) gets the ball for the RailRiders, coming off a start in which he allowed just one run over 6.0 innings last time out. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. with pregame coverage with Adam Marco and Adam Giardino beginning at 6:35 p.m. on the RailRiders Radio Network.