STAFF REPORTS
The Bisons and RailRiders are going to see a lot of each other over the next few days at Sahlen Field and after the first night in downtown Buffalo, each club already has a victory to their credit.
The IL North Division foes started a six-game in four-day series by splitting a doubleheader on a breezy Monday night. Buffalo claimed the 4-2 victory in the restart of a suspended game from April 20 before Scranton/Wilkes-Barre rallied for a 9-2 win in the nightcap.
The night’s first contest brought some unique statistical oddities with it. While completed on June 3, because the game started and played through two innings on April 20, all the stats from the game will go down on that date in the record books. It also meant the Bisons needed pinch hitters for Bo Bichette, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Vladimir Guerrero Jr and Cavan Biggio, all of whom are no longer with the team.
Teoscar Hernandez came in for Biggio and launched a mammoth home run with one out in the third inning that gave Buffalo a 2-0 edge. The home run was his fifth of the year, or technically his first.
It also means that on April 20, 2019, Hernandez went 1-2 with a home run for the Bisons at Sahlen Field, while also going 1-3 with a walk in the Blue Jays 10-1 victory over the Athletics at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, 2,826 miles away.
Patrick Kivlehan, who was inserted in the game for Gurriel Jr., added a two-run double in the fourth inning, which proved to be the game-winning hit as the RailRiders scored a pair of runs late. The slugger began the year with the Indianapolis Indians, so the record books will show he also went 1-3 for Indy in a home game against Louisville on the same day.
Just promoted from New Hampshire, Zach Logue took the ball at the restart for the Bisons and threw 3.1 innings of relief. He struck out four and allowed a pair of runs in picking up the victory in his first career Triple-A appearance.
Kirby Snead earned his first Triple-A save by closing out game one. He got veteran catcher Ryan Lavarnway to ground into an inning-ending doubleplay in the sixth before striking out a pair in the seventh inning.
Game 2 did not go the Herd’s way despite taking a 2-1 lead in the second inning on a mammoth home run from Jordan Patterson.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre tied the game in the third when Tyler Wade tripled into the right field corner and scored on a sacrifice fly from Mike Ford.
The RailRiders then sent 11 men to the plate in a six-run fourth inning to blow the game wide open. After retiring the first two batters in the inning, Herd starter Andrew Sopko allowed the next eight batters to reach. Trey Amburgey‘s single into left field gave Scranton/Wilkes-Barre the lead and Wade cleared the bases with a three-run double into centerfield that made it 6-2 RailRiders. Ford then launched his 13th home run of the season to cap the big RailRiders’ rally.
The teams, making up an entire three-game set that was washed away in April, will play another doubleheader on Wednesday (5:35 p.m.) with single games on Tuesday and Thursday at 7:05 p.m. at Sahlen Field..
