STAFF REPORTS
Pawtucket’s 5-2 victory over the Bisons on Saturday night at Sahlen Field had unfortunate familiarity to it for Herd fans.
For the second straight game, the PawSox used a trio of solo home runs to deal Buffalo a damaging late season loss. Bobby Dalbec, Tzu-Wei Lin and Josh Ockimey all went deep as Pawtucket outhit the Bisons, 14-8, and never relinquished the lead.
Lin and two others homered in Friday’s 4-2 win over the Herd. The only good news to come from the night for the Bisons is that both Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and Syracuse also lost on Saturday. The Herd remains four games back in the IL North division.
Dalbec was the first to hit it over the wall Saturday night as he greeted Bisons starter T.J. Zeuchby hitting the first pitch of the second inning onto the Sahlen Field berm in right-center. Lin then led off the fourth with solo shot of Zeuch, his second homer in as many nights. For each infielder, the blast was their fourth of the season.
Pawtucket added an unearned run the fourth and took a 4-2 lead into the ninth inning when Ockimey delivered the final blow. In the game for rehabbing Boston Red Sox infielder, Michael Chavis, Ockimey took advantage of his only plate appearance of the night by driving a fastball from Herd reliver Jackson McClelland into the centerfield pavilion.
The homer was Ochkimey’s 23rd on the season.
The Bisons scored both of their runs in fifth inning, but failed to take full advantage of the rally. The Herd strung together four straight hits with Jordan Patterson and Roemon Fields getting on base in front of Jonathan Davis‘s RBI single to right. Socrates Brito then chopped a double over the head of Chavis at first base and into right field for a run-scoring double.
The Bisons were down just 3-2 and had runners on second and third base and still no outs. But Davis was caught off the bag when Patrick Kivlehan hit a grounder to Dalbec at third. As Dalbec threw home to retire the runner, Kivlehan tried to take the extra bag and get to second. Former Bisons’ catcher Juan Centeno was not fooled and threw down to second base to record another out.
Beau Taylor then flew out to center and all of a sudden the rally was lost.
Zeuch suffered the defeat for the Bisons, dropping his record to 4-3 on the year. The righty scattered eight hits and allowed just two earned runs over five innings.
Just returned from the San Francisco Giants, reliever Travis Bergen made his Bisons debut and allowed a run on a pair of singles in an inning of relief.
The Herd will look to snap their three-game losing streak Sunday at 1 as the top prospect in the Blue Jays minor league system, Nate Pearson, takes the hill in what will probably be his only start at Sahlen Field this season. GET MY TICKETS
