As the sun sunk at McCoy Stadium on Friday, it took the Herd’s chances at a win with it.
Three lost balls by Buffalo’s outfield led to a seven-run third inning, allowing the Pawtucket Red Sox to roll on to an 8-2 victory over the Bisons.
With a twilight backdrop above the walls of the ball park, the bottom of the third inning started somewhat normally with a groundout, a single and walk. That’s when Marco Hernandez hit a high fly ball to left field.
Domonic Brown ran to where he thought the ball may be landing, but then threw out his hands as he could not locate the ball which landed on the warning track behind him. Hernandez then scampered around the bags, easily beating the eventual throw home.
The next batter, Chris Marrero, ripped a liner to right which handcuffed Junior Lake as he tried to pick up the sphere coming towards him. Lake then lunged at the ball as it skipped by him, leading to a triple for the PawSox cleanup man, who touched home plate on a sac fly a moment later.
Another walk and a single kept the inning alive, giving Henry Ramos the chance to hit a fly ball at Lake once more. Like Brown, Lake stared at the sky as the ball sailed past him for a two-run double.
Mike Miller tacked on another run to make it 7-1 with a two-bagger of his own before Rusney Castillo grounded out to end the frame.
Pawtucket starter Roenis Elias gave up a run in the first but found his groove as he retired 15 in a row from the second inning to the seventh. The left-handed Cuban fanned eight Bisons to lower his ERA to 3.72.
Chris Leroux could only look on in frustration in the extend third, then lasted one more inning with an unfortunate seven runs and eight hits charged against him.
Buffalo took the early lead in the first as Dalton Pompey walked and was driven in by a Matt Dominguez double to deep center field.
The Herd added another in the eighth on a David Adams double and a sacrifice fly off of the bat of Ryan Goins.
BISONS NOTES:
Hernandez’s inside-the-park home run was the first against the Herd since May 30, 2008 when Larry Broadway of the Columbus Clippers hit one off of Jeff Harris…In his 13th appearance with the Herd this season, Aaron Loup gave up his first run of the year on a triple and a single in the seventh inning…Jesus Montero went 2-for-4 with a pair of singles, his team-leading 39th multi-hit game of the year.
from Bisons.com via IFTTT
