The Bisons won their last contest before the All-Star break on Sunday, defeating the IronPigs 5-3 from Coca-Cola Field. Jesus Montero smacked two of the Herd’s three home runs, including a towering shot well over the leftfield wall in the fourth inning, as part of a three-hit ballgame.
With the score tied at three, the Herd loaded the bases in the bottom of the eighth against reliever Luis Garcia. Domonic Brown then gave the Bisons a 5-3 lead, drilling a two-run single to leftfield.
“That was as good, if not better, than any of the home runs,” Bisons’ manager Gary Allenson said of Brown’s at bat. “A key hit late like that, especially on the last day before the All-Star break.”
“We’ve been swinging the bat great,” Domonic Brown said postgame. “I was just trying to come up big for my teammates there. I know Garcia pretty well. I know they’ve been staying away from me the whole series. So I was just trying to sit up the middle, and got a good pitch to hit.”
A win on a sunny, 78-degree afternoon in Buffalo moves the Bisons to a 50-41 record on the year, as they snap a three-game losing streak. The Herd will again battle IL North rival Lehigh Valley after the break for a four-game series.
“We need to show clubs like Lehigh and Scranton and Rochester that we’re just as good, if not better, than them,” Allenson said. “It’s time to be competitive every night.”
Facing IronPigs’ starter Anthony Vasquez, Darrell Ceciliani ripped a line-drive home run to put Buffalo up 1-0 in the bottom of the first. Ceciliani’s fifth long ball was crushed into the Bully Hill Party Deck in right field.
Down 1-0 in the top of the third, the IronPigs’ Taylor Featherston plated Darnell Sweeney with a RBI double to knot up the score. The tie would not last long, as J.P. Crawford brought home Featherston on a run-scoring single off Bisons’ starter Casey Lawrence.
Lawrence loaded the bases in the top of the fifth with the Bisons still down 2-1, when Carlos Alonso bounced into an inning-ending double play, initiated by David Adams at second.
The second tie of the night lasted about as long as the first, as Taylor Featherston knocked his second homer of the series to lead off the top of the fifth, retaking the lead for Lehigh Valley.
Jesus Montero’s first home run of the game tied the score at two with a moonshot over the leftfield wall to lead off the bottom of the fourth. Montero’s blast traveled an estimated 460 feet.
He again evened the score in the sixth, mashing his second blast of the ballgame, shooting a ball over the left-centerfield wall.
“It was good to hit those two home runs,” Jesus Montero said postgame. “It was fun to hit the ball hard, and get the win.”
Montero’s second home run of the game passes Matt Dominguez for the team-lead, as he heads to the All-Star break with 11 homers. Both Montero and Dominguez have led the team in long balls at various points throughout the season.
“We just go out there and have fun,” Montero said of his back-and-fourth home run chase with Dominguez. “Whoever hits the most, we don’t care, we’re not in competition for that. I like to see him swinging good, and obviously I’ve been good too.”
Casey Lawrence, in his second start since returning to the Herd on July 5, lasted 5.0 innings, allowing three earned runs on seven hits, fanning five hitters. This coming off his winning performance against Rochester last Tuesday.
“Lawrence wasn’t as sharp as he was last time out,” Allenson said. “He could have gone further, but we needed to pitch some guys before the break, and it worked out great.”
Anthony Vasquez also went 5.0 innings, yielding two earned runs. He gave way to the Lehigh Valley bullpen, who ultimately allowed the Bisons to take the lead in the eighth.
Chad Girodo relieved Lawrence for the sixth, and got Carlos Alonso to fly out with runners on the corners. Dustin Antolin walked three in the seventh, but Darin Ruf bounced into the IronPigs’ third double play of the afternoon. Danny Barnes pitched a perfect eighth inning, notching his first Triple-A win in the process.
Following Domonic Brown’s go-ahead single in the eighth, Ryan Tepera earned his 13th straight save in the bottom of the ninth.
Now begins the All-Star break, culminating in the 2016 Triple-A All-Star game on Wednesday from BB&T Ballpark in Charlotte, NC. The Herd will send three players to the mid-summer game, Dustin Antolin, Jesus Montero and Ben Rowen, with Montero in the starting lineup and participating in the homerun derby on Monday. Antolin and Rowen will be available out of the bullpen. Starter Drew Hutchison was also named to the team on June 29, but will not see action in the exhibition.
Both the Bisons and IronPigs will match up again on Thursday, this time in Allentown, PA, for the opener of a four-game set. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. from Coca-Cola Park.
BISONS NOTES:
The Bisons reach the 50-win plateau, a mark they attained last year on July 23… Shane Opitz returned to the Bisons’ lineup for the first time since May 11. This was his first home game as a member of the Herd…. Sunday was the first game this season in which the Bisons hit three home runs… Danny Barnes becomes the 18th Bisons’ pitcher to record a win this year.
from Bisons.com via IFTTT
