ROCHESTER — The Buffalo Bisons dropped the third game of a six-game series against the Rochester Red Wings on Thursday, with the home side coming out with a 9-8 win at Innovative Field. Kevin Piawecki gave the Red Wings their third win of the season with a walk-off single to score Onix Vega to wrap up the night.
The scoring came early and often, started by Buffalo’s Wynton Bernard hitting an RBI double to score Nathan Lukes in the top of the first inning. Rochester would answer in the bottom of the first inning before the Herd added two more runs in the third inning with Cam Eden scoring after Otto Lopez reached base on a fielder’s choice that snowballed into an error that allowed Lopez to advance to second base. A second consecutive error by the Red Wings allowed Lopez to come around and score to make the score 3-1.
The fourth innings saw Buffalo extend the lead to 4-1 thanks to a Rafael Lantigua double that scored Davis Schneider. After Rochester answered with two runs of their own in the bottom of the fourth to make the score 4-3, Davis Schneider hit his first home run of the season to open the lead back up to two.
Rochester would get things going in the bottom of the fifth inning, scoring three runs to take a short-lived 6-5 lead into the top of the sixth. Addison Barger would continue his hot streak, hitting an RBI single to bring Cam Eden across the plate again and tie the game at 6-6. Barger now has hits in four of his last five games and has two RBIs over that stretch.
The two teams would continue trading blows and Rochester would take a 7-6 lead before Rochester native Ernie Clement tied things up at seven with an RBI double to score Davis Schneider. A Red Wings home run would give the Red Wings an 8-7 lead in the eighth inning to set the scene for a wild ninth.
Buffalo was quickly down to their final out before Rafael Lantigua singled to start the rally. Ernie Clement added a single of his own and the Herd had runners on first and second before Cam Eden stepped to the plate and hit an RBI single to bring Lantigua home and tie the game at 8-8. A Nathan Lukes walk loaded the bases for the Herd, but Buffalo was unable to cash in and the two teams headed to the bottom of the ninth tied.
Rochester started the bottom of the ninth with two consecutive singles before Franklin Barreto laid down a sacrifice Bunt to move pinch-runner Onix Vega to third base. Kevin Plawecki then stepped to the plate and hit the game-winning line drive RBI single that was just out of the reach of Rafael Lantigua to win the game for Rochester.
Thursday’s game saw the most combined runs and hits in any game for Buffalo this season, with the Herd and Red Wings combining for 17 runs and 28 hits in a thrilling game that saw 12 extra-base hits and two home runs.
All WNY is made possible thanks to coffee and sleep deprivation.
We appreciate your readership. We like money, too.
