STAFF REPORTS
One exclamation could be used to describe Bo Bichette‘s performance against Syracuse Friday night: Woah!
With three extra-base hits to his name, the shortstop recorded two doubles and a solo home run as the Bisons ran away with an 8-2 victory over the Mets at NBT Bank Stadium.
With his timely plays all coming before the end of the fourth inning, Bichette led an offensive brigade that challenged Mets starter Walker Lockett just five days after he recorded his first Triple-A win against this same Herd team at Sahlen Field.
On just the second pitch of the game, Bichette set the tone with a lead-off double off the left centerfield wall, extending his hitting streak to six straight games. After stealing third base successfully during Socrates Brito‘s first at-bat of the night that ended in a walk, Bichette was brought home on Patrick Kivlehan‘s sacrifice fly for a 1-0 Buffalo lead. The energy continued even with two outs as Richard Urena and Reese McGuire had back-to-back RBI singles for the Herd’s early 3-0 lead.
Bichette continued to dominate against Lockett when his second at-bat came in the following inning. After Alen Hanson stretched out for a lead-off triple with a hit dropping into shallow center, Bichette brought him home two batters with his second double of the night – this time off the right centerfield wall – for Buffalo’s 4-0 lead.
His 12th multi-hit game of the season, Bichette had the hit that shifted the momentum for the rest of the night. With the Herd only having a 4-2 lead heading into the top of the fourth after solo homers from Rene Rivera and Tim Tebow off starter Conor Fisk, the Florida native launched one of his own on the first pitch of his final at-bat against Lockett.
Not only did this give the Herd a three-run lead, this was his second home run in as many nights and his fifth of the season. With two more knocked in, Bichette now has 24 RBI on the season.
From there, Urena and Roemon Fields kept things going at the plate. Fields hit a two-out RBI single in the fifth and later had a sacrifice fly in the seventh to allow McGuire to score two of Buffalo’s runs. Urena, meanwhile, capped off a three-hit night with another RBI single in the eighth to send Brito home for the team’s final run. Also picking up a single in the third, this was Urena’s 11th multi-hit game and is now 7 of 12 at the plate in this series.
Outside of the two home runs, Fisk dominated in the rest of his five-inning outing to earn his second win of the season and his first as a Bison starter. After only lasting three innings against this same Mets team on June 30, Fisk bounced back by controlling his at-bats with plenty of first pitch strikes and struck out a new season-high six batters – including twice against both Rajai Davis and Rivera. Not only did he throw a 7-pitch third inning, Fisk retired six of his seven final batters. On 76 pitches (52 strikes), Fisk, who has been primarily used as a reliever, allowed only five hits and did not walk a batter for just the second time in his eight starts this season.
Fisk’s strong start led to a solid passing of the baton to the Buffalo bullpen combination of Corey Copping, Buddy Boshers and Edwin Jackson as the three combined to allow just one hit over the final four innings. Copping pitched the next 1.1 innings, and after walking his first batter, retired his next four batters, including a strikeout. His night ended though in the seventh after Rymer Liriano hit a double, leading to the start of Boshers’ night.
After struggling in his last outing against Lehigh Valley on July 3, Boshers bounced back as he retired all five of the batters he faced through the end of the eighth, including a strikeout against Tebow on 17 pitches (11 strikes).
Edwin Jackson finished the night with a 1-2-3 inning in the ninth as part of his MLB rehab assignment on only 9 pitches.
