STAFF REPORTS
The Bisons, playing as the Wings, were defeated by Rochester, playing as the Plates, 3-1 from Coca-Cola Field Thursday night. Rochester scored three runs in the first inning and that’s all the Plates needed in the victory.
Thursday was the first game the Herd were temporarily renamed the Buffalo Wings. The team will play as the Wings for the entire series against the Rochester Plates, which concludes on Sunday.
The Plates scored their only runs of the game on consecutive at-bats. First, Chris Carter hit an RBI-double. One batter later, Kenny Vargas delivered a two RBI-single to bring home the second and third runs of the inning. In the game, Rochester outhit Buffalo 9-6.
Buffalo got its only run of the game with two outs in the third. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. went with an outside pitch to the right side for a single. Then, Danny Jansen ripped an RBI-double off the wall on a fly to bring home Gurriel Jr. This moved the score to 3-1.
The Wings scratched across the one run against Rochester starter Adalberto Mejia. Mejia held Buffalo to four hits while striking out six batters in as many innings pitched.
The Wings had an opportunity to cut the lead in the seventh but did not score in the inning. Roemon Fields led off with double right down the first base line but was thrown on his attempt to leg out a triple.
This erased an RBI chance for Tim Lopes in the next at-bat when he stroked a double to the right-field gap that would have scored Fields.
“I was glad he [Fields] went for it,” manager Bobby Meacham said. “That’s the way we want to play. He never slowed up, he was aggressive to go for it, and it would have been a big play,” he said.