Chris Leroux had one of his best outings of the season but a four-run eighth inning propelled the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders to a 5-1 win over the Buffalo Bisons at Coca-Cola Field on Saturday.

Ike Davis started the Riders’ second last at-bat with single to right field. Starter Chris Leroux then used a force out and a ground out to retire the next two batters to keep the game tied 1-1. After a single and a walk, Leroux left the hill when a second single to Ben Gamel gave the Riders a one-run lead.

“I felt good, I just made the one bad pitch there in the end. He was kind of looking for a slider outside, I should’ve come in with a fastball,” said the 6-foot-6 righty.

“I definitely followed the game plan. It’s frustrating that it ended the way it did but that’s baseball. I’ve definitely had games like that before. It’s just one of those days.”

Even though he took the loss, Leroux had one of his best starts of the year before handing the ball off to Dustin Antolin. The Montrealer had retired 14 of 15 batters before taking the hill to begin the eighth and ended up with seven strikeouts over a season-best 7.2 innings.

“He got us as far as he could go. We’re kind of strapped right now and have to go bullpen-by-committee tomorrow,” said manager Gary Allenson, whose scheduled starter for Sunday, Drew Hutchison, pitched Saturday afternoon for the Blue Jays.

“I almost kissed him out there when he got us as far as he did.”

With two men aboard, Antolin was unable to keep the floodgates from opening further as the Riders singled twice, walked and used a pair of throwing errors to score three more.

The Bisons scored their only run in the bottom of the second. Domonic Brown led off the inning by bouncing a long liner off of the warning track in right-center field and over the wall for a ground rule double. Melky Mesa traded places with his fellow outfielder when he roped a ball off of the wall in left.

Casey Kotchman then singled to put runners on the corners with none out, but the Herd was unable to capitalize any further.

Wilkin Castillo lined a ball right at the second baseman and Jio Mier nearly had a sac fly to right field, but the throw from Aaron Judge was close enough to the plate for catcher Gary Sanchez to apply the sweep tag on Mesa’s shoulder, bringing a sudden end to any potential rally.

The RailRiders tied the game in the following frame as speedster Cesar Puello bunted his way aboard, stole second base and reached home on an RBI single from Pete Kozma.

Johnny Barbato made his first start of the season for the Riders and was unable to pitch beyond the second inning. The usual reliever allowed three hits and a walk and was charged with the only run before making way for Diego Mareno.

The Venezuelan right-hander put in yeoman’s work for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, hurling five scoreless innings to keep the game tied at ones. Mareno improves his record to 4-1 with the victory, extending the RailRiders’ win streak to seven games.

BISONS NOTES: Following the Blue Jays’ 19-inning marathon, Drew Hutchison and Aaron Loup were called up Saturday morning to aid Toronto’s beleaguered bullpen. Bo Schultz was optioned back to Buffalo…The Herd also activated reliever Bobby Korecky and catcher Luis Hurtado from the disabled list…Jesus Montero doubled in the sixth inning to move into a tie with Andy Burns at 19 for the team lead…Chris Leroux threw 112 pitches, three more than any other Bisons pitcher has hurled this season.

from Bisons.com via IFTTT