Sawamura, Crawford Shine in Polar Park Debuts Against Buffalo
WORCESTER, M.A. — The Buffalo Bisons (45-25) stifled a late rally from the Worcester Red Sox (37-34) to grab a 5-1 win on Wednesday afternoon in the series opener at Polar Park. Pitchers dominated the day, beginning with Hirokazu Sawamura for the WooSox. Sawamura made his first appearance in the
WORCESTER, M.A. — The Buffalo Bisons (45-25) stifled a late rally from the Worcester Red Sox (37-34) to grab a 5-1 win on Wednesday afternoon in the series opener at Polar Park.
Pitchers dominated the day, beginning with Hirokazu Sawamura for the WooSox. Sawamura made his first appearance in the minors as part of a Major League rehab, and the right-hander delivered a 13-pitch 1-2-3 first inning. Sawamura was matched by Tommy Milone, on rehab from Toronto, with a scoreless bottom of the inning for Buffalo.
From there, bulk relievers took over and came through with similar performances. Kutter Crawford, making his Worcester debut after joining the team from Double-A Portland, went six innings and allowed three runs. The right-hander gave up nine hits, but the vast majority were not hard hit, and he also struck out five.
The Bisons got their runs on a Cullen Large RBI bloop to center in the second, a Large sac-fly to the shortstop in the fourth and a run-scoring infield single by Corey Dickerson in the fifth.
Crawford's efforts were rivaled by Buffalo's bullpen, as the trio of Zach Logue, Tyler Chatwood and Connor Overton combined to bring a no-hitter in to the eighth. Working against Overton, Tate Matheny delivered the first hit of the day for the WooSox, an infield single with one out in the inning. Michael Gettys followed with a single of his own, and Matheny came home on a fielder’s choice one batter later.
Yairo Muñoz singled as well to extend his hit streak to 20 games, part of a one-run, three-hit inning by Worcester. The 20 game stretch marks the second-longest hitting streak in modern Red Sox Triple-A history, behind only Jacoby Ellsbury (25 straight for Pawtucket in 2007).
Durbin Feltman tossed a scoreless eighth in his first home appearance in the eighth. After Kevin McCarthy allowed two runs in the top of the ninth on a Richard Ureña RBI single and a run-scoring groundout, the WooSox did not score in the bottom of the frame to close the team’s fifth straight loss.
The WooSox continue the six-game series Thursday with a doubleheader beginning at 4:35 p.m. against the Buffalo Bisons at Polar Park. Television coverage is on NESN+, while radio coverage starts live at 4:30 p.m. on 98.9 Nash Icon and the WooSox Radio Network. In game one, Stephen Gonsalves (4-4, 4.66) faces Anthony Kay (0-1, 9.77), while Connor Seabold (0-1, 8.10) makes his home debut in game two.