By: Brayden Peters
BUFFALO, N.Y. - The Buffalo Bisons played in arguably one of their wildest games all season, beating the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders 1-0 in extra innings. Buffalo's pitching unit had a day, breaking the modern-era record for the number of total strikeouts with 19. This is also a season high for the Bisons as their original one tied the record with 18 strikeouts.
"I called before the game and I said, 'Hey, I think we should strike everybody out,'" Bisons manager Casey Candaele said. "Obviously the pitchers continued to throw during the four days off..."
Six-time MLB All- Star and 2010 NL MVP Joey Votto was supposed to make his Bisons debut. However, a rolled ankle during pregame took him out of the lineup. He will receive an evaluation of his injury on Saturday.
Bisons starting pitcher Bowden Francis had his best game this season with Buffalo. In four innings, he gave up one walk and threw eight strikeouts. Both the four innings pitched and eight strikeouts are season highs for Francis in Buffalo.
"Just getting comfortable, getting back to my mechanics, you know, getting back down here and kind of slow it down," Francis said. "Working on just my mechanics and savor the moment and (Brian) Serven kind of knew what was working. He kind of took control of the game and I kind of just followed his lead."
Francis wasn't the only Bisons pitcher that showed out. Nice Fraze threw five strikeouts in two innings pitched. Yerry Rodriguez, Brandon Eisert and Paxton Schultz all threw two strikeouts each as well.
Through nine innings, both teams each recorded three hits. The RailRiders' bullpen had a solid day too, throwing eight strikeouts while only walking three batters.
"It just starts with Serve (Serven)," Francis said. "I had a good start and the we passed the ball off to everyone and they kept rolling with it. This was a good night all around."
In the tenth inning, the Bisons were the ones to draw first blood to put the game away. Riley Tirotta, who was the pinch hitter for the inning, got to third on a sacrifice bunt from Rafael Lantigua. Tirotta then crossed home plate thanks to a wild pitch thrown by Duane Underwood Jr.
The Bisons improve to a 43-50 overall record and are now 5-13 in the second half. Also, they are in ninth in the IL East. As for the RailRiders, the loss drops them to a 49-43 overall record and they are now 6-12 in the second half. They are in third in the IL East.
The win was much needed for the Bisons. Not only are they in a slump as shown by their second half record, but they have gone 2-8 in their past 10 games.
"We need to play well and we need to put some wins together," Candaele said. "I mean, we need to do all aspects of the game...We need to kind of grind out and scratch out some runs and do some things that we can do offensively. I think we've gotten away from that 'grind it out' attitude and kind of have given some at bats away I think, you know, in the last couple weeks of the All-Star break."
Buffalo will look to extend their winning streak to two games when they host the RailRiders on Saturday at 6:35 p.m. James Kaprielian (0-1, 9.00) will get the start on the mound for Buffalo and Will Warren (5-5, 6.70) will start for the RailRiders. Saturday will be a special day at Sahlen Field. It will be Kyle Brandt Bobblehead Giveaway Day and Brandt, who is an NFL sports analyst, will throw the first pitch.
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