Five Bisons hurlers combined to strike out 14 RailRiders, but Scranton/Wilkes-Barre found enough offense to pull out the 3-1 win over the Herd, Tuesday night at Sahlen Field.
Andrew Bash led Buffalo with five strikeouts over his three innings of work while Adam Macko fanned four over his three frames. Hayden Juenger and Ryan Jennings struck out a pair each while Joe Mantiply got the team’s 14th K of the night in the ninth inning.
But despite all the punchouts, the RailRiders pushed across enough runs to maintain their three-game lead over Syracuse for the International League’s best second half record. T.J. Rumfield opened the scoring with his 16th home run of the season in the fourth before Scranton/Wilkes-Barre rallied with two outs in the same inning to push across a second run.
Jeimer Candelario grounded a double just inside the third base bag to keep the fourth inning alive before Bryan De La Cruz dropped a soft flyball just to the fair-side of the right field line to score the run.
Buffalo’s lone run came in the fifth inning to close the deficit to 2-1. Rene Pinto doubled home Riley Tirotta with two outs with a sharp line drive to centerfield.