STAFF REPORTS
On a night the Bisons absolutely needed a win, their Most Valuable Player came to shine… But in the end, it wasn’t enough to keep the Bisons postseason hopes alive.
After receiving the team’s highest honor pregame, Socrates Brito clubbed a three-run home run and threw out two runners on the bases as the Bisons fell to the Red Wings, 7-6, in front of 15,354 on Fan Appreciation Night at Sahlen Field. Along with the Bisons defeat, Thursday night wins by Syracuse and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre eliminated the Herd from all playoff possibilities.
With four games left against the RailRiders this weekend in Moosic, PA, the best Buffalo can do is 73 wins on the season. With Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and the Mets already at that total, a three-way tie breaker (based on head-to-head records) would go to the RailRiders.
With the Bisons trailing 2-1 in the top half of the fifth inning, Brito kept the score right where it was by making a perfect throw home when speedster Ian Miller tried to score from second on a single by rehabbing Minnesota Twin, Willians Astudillo.
Then in the bottom half of the fifth, Brito left little doubt in giving the Herd their first lead of the game. With the score knotted at two, Brito launched a no-doubt three-run home run into the right field berm. His 16th home run of the year gave the slugger 63 runs driven in for the campaign and put the Herd up 5-2.
The teams traded longballs all night with a nice breeze blowing across the field. Alejandro De Azahit a two-run shot in the second inning to open the scoring and Patrick Kivlehan responded with his 29th home run of the year, a solo shot to left in the bottom half of the inning.
Kivlehan, who started the year with the Indianapolis Indians, has hit 25 of his 29 International League home runs with the Bisons. He is just the 11th Herd slugger to reach the 25-homer plateau and the first since All-Star Mauro Gomez hit 29 for Buffalo in 2013.
Rochester answered Brito’s home run in the seventh inning as Astudillo hit a three-run homer out to left off reliever Brock Stewart to tie the score.
But Buffalo came right back. Voted by his teammates as the 2019 Most Inspirational Player, Michael De La Cruz drove his fifth home run of the season the opposite way out to left. The line shot put the Bisons back in front, 6-5.
The final home run, however, bellowing to Rochester. Two batters into the eighth, Zander Wiellaunched a moon shot two-run homer to deep-left center, his 23rd of the season. The Red Wings held onto the lead as reliever Fernando Romero worked around a two-out error in the ninth inning to record a six-out save.
Stewart took the loss for Buffalo, allowing five runs in 2.2 innings of reliever of T.J. Zeuch. The Herd started allowed just one earned run (two total runs) over five innings in the no-decision.
