Casey Lawrence was called into duty to fill the hole in the rotation left by the recently-released Roberto Hernandez and gave the Bisons exactly what they needed. Making his first start since April 21, the 28-year-old held the Red Wings to just one run over six innings of work, striking out five batters along the way.
Though the focus was mainly on the left-hander and his fourth start with the Herd this season, a total team effort from Buffalo led to an impressive 8-1 win over Rochester at Frontier Field Tuesday evening.
The victory was Lawrence’s first ever at the Triple-A level.
Seven different Buffalo batters picked up an RBI, led by a pair from Darrrell Ceciliani who had three hits, a walk and came around to score twice. Matt Dominguez had hit first four-hit game of the season, two of which were doubles, to bring his average up to .282.
The Bisons got the offense going in the top of the third as seven consecutive batters reached base to start the inning.
Ceciliani drew a walk and came all the way around to score as David Adams bounced a double into the left-field corner. Singles from Dominguez and Jesus Montero were followed up by walks to Domonic Brown and Melky Mesa, making it a 3-0 game while bringing an end to Andrew Albers’ night.
The exit of Rochester’s lefty brought an end to a streak of 57 games in which the Wings have gotten at least five innings of work out of their starter.
Casey Kotchman then picked up a free pass from reliever Nick Greenwood to push Buffalo’s lead to four. A 5-2 double play and a fielder’s choice groundout brought an end to the inning, but not the Bisons’ attack.
The Herd added a pair of runs in the sixth to make it 6-0. Tony Sanchez walked and touched home a batter later as Alexi Casilla hammered a ball off of the center-field wall for a double. Ceciliani then traded places with the shortstop, keeping his hard grounder inside the first base bag for his first of two doubles on the night.
Rochester scored its only run off of Lawrence with a single and a double in the sixth.
Buffalo tacked on two more in the top of the eighth, as Casilla was once more driven in by Ceciliani. Dominguez’s 11th double of the year chauffeured home the left fielder to cap the Herd’s run total at eight.
Franklin Morales threw another clean inning for the Bisons as part of his rehab for the Blue Jays in the seventh. Bo Schultz continued the strong pitching performance with a 1-2-3 eighth.
The Red Wings made it 8-2 in their final at-bat, using a couple of singles and a ground rule double to tally one more run off of Colt Hynes.
The Herd has won 11 of its last 15 games with all four losses coming at the hands of the RailRiders. Buffalo will now head south to take on Scranton/Wilkes-Barre for a pair of contests starting Wednesday evening.
BISONS NOTES:
With a single in his first at-bat, Tony Sanchez extended his on-base streak to 20 games…Darrell Ceciliani is now 16-for-43 with eight extra-base hits since being optioned from Toronto…Jio Mier left the game in the middle of the fifth inning, the team has not released the reason why yet…The Herd’s road win streak of nine game ties the franchise’s modern-era record. The 1985 squad won three separate series on April 17-19, April 28-30, and May 8-11.
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