STAFF REPORTS
They say hitting is contagious and there isn’t a team in baseball that wouldn’t want what the Bisons have going through their lineup right now.
Jonathan Davis and Patrick Kivlehan each hit a pair of home runs as the Herd reached double-digits in the run column yet again, scoring a 10-6 victory over the Red Sox on Monday night from McCoy. The win is Buffalo’s seventh straight and 15th in the last 18 games since June 6.
For the sixth time in just the last 13 days, the Bisons scored 10 or more in a game, reaching that total in the series opener in Pawtucket on the strength of the middle of their lineup. Batting third for the Herd, Davis drove in half the runs himself, launching a two-run homer in the first inning to get Buffalo on the scoreboard and doing one better in the sixth with a three-run shot.
The second of the two, a prestigious blast to straight away center, was Davis’ sixth of the year in only 30 games with the Herd. With the 10 doubles he’s already racked up, 16 of the outfielder’s 27 hits on the year have gone for extra bases.
And the batter that followed Davis in the lineup was not to be outdone. Kivlehan’s two home runs went an estimated 839 feet combined, starting with a 411-foot two-run blast in the third inning that put the Bisons up 4-0.
His second shot, a 428-foot no-doubter to left field in the sixth, came just two pitches after Davis’s three-run blast and capped a five-run rally that put the game out of reach. The slugger now has nine home runs in only 26 games with the Herd, good for a .621 slugging pct.
Joining the hit parade for the Herd was Bo Bichette, who had another multi-hit effort. He singled in front of Davis’s first homer and drove home a run with another hit in the sixth inning. The Blue Jays top prospect is now hitting .295 with the Bisons.
Thomas Pannone, who grew up in Cranston, RI just 20 minutes away from McCoy Stadium, earned his first career Triple-A win with five innings of one run baseball. Much to the delight of several friends and family members in the park, the southpaw struck out the side in the first inning and stranded the bases loaded in the third and the fifth innings in the victory.
Pawtucket made the game closer by scoring four times in the bottom half of the sixth inning, but Zack Jackson and Justin Shafer struck out six and allowed just a run over the final 3.1 innings of work to close out the victory.
The Herd’s short roadtrip includes one more game in Pawtucket Tuesday night (7:05 p.m.) and a three-game in two-day series in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre before the team returns home to Buffalo for a Honda fridaynightbash! against the Mets (TICKETS)
BISONS NOTES: The Bisons had great speed to go along with their power on Monday. Alen Hanson and Roemon Fields both beat out bunt singles to start the big five-run rally in the sixth inning. The team also was 4-for-4 stealing bases in the game, including two from Bo Bichette… Hanson reached base three times in the win, going 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI… Bisons pitchers forced Pawtucket to leave 12 men on base.
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