Louisville 9 Buffalo 7
Buffalo's pitching is like Toronto's. To be fair it was Luis Perez who was responsible for most of the damage. Report from milb:
The Bisons fell too far behind the Louisville Bats to complete a dramatic fridaynightbash comeback at Coca-Cola Field. The Bats' six-run sixth inning was enough to hold off a late Buffalo rally in a 9-7 final.
The Bisons scored in three straight innings, but only after Louisville built a 9-2 lead that was too much for the Herd to come back from.
The Bats never trailed on Friday night as Irving Falu homered on the seventh pitch of the game from Austin Bibens-Dirkx. The righty returned from New Hampshire just hours before the start of the contest with the Blue Jays selecting the contract of scheduled Bisons starter, Andrew Albers.
Louisville made it 3-2 after four inning before going to work on the Bisons bullpen. The Bats sent 10 men to the plate, scoring all six runs in the frame with two outs off reliever Luis Perez. Bryson Smith drove in two with his single to centerfield. Four batters later, Ivan De Jesus doubled down the left field line to plate two more.
Trailing 9-2, the Bisons started their rally with a three-run sixth inning. A.J Jimenez hit bases loaded sac fly and Caleb Gindl doubled off the wall in left. Ezequiel Carrera brought in the third run with a grounder to short.
Andy Wilkins and Chris Colabello put together hits in the seventh inning to score a run and Munenori Kawasaki dropped one in behind shortstop to pull the Bisons to within 9-7 in the eighth. Buffalo had the tying run at the plate twice, including with two outs in the ninth, but couldn't complete the comeback.
Bibens-Dirkx took the loss for Buffalo after allowing three runs in four innings of work. Steve Delabar struck out two in an inning of relief to lower his ERA to 1.08.
New Hampshire 1 Binghamton 2
From milb: The New Hampshire Fisher Cats did all their scoring in the first inning and were undone late, losing 2-1 to the host Binghamton Mets in front of an announced crowd of 2,314 at NYSEG Stadium.
The Fisher Cats (12-10) had a three-game winning streak snapped despite a superb effort from starting pitcher Matt Boyd (ND), who tossed 5.1 shutout innings with three strikeouts while scattering four singles and walking none. The Mets (13-9) ran off their fifth consecutive victory, snagging two late runs to surpass the Fisher Cats.
New Hampshire got the scoring started in the top of the first, after a couple of strikeouts from Jon Berti and Dwight Smith began the inning. Ryan Schimpf shredded a fastball from Binghamton starter Gabriel Ynoa (W, 2-1) over the right-field fence for a solo homer. The round-tripper was Schimpf's fifth of the season, good for the league lead, and it made it 1-0 in favor of the Fisher Cats.
Neither team would strike again until the bottom of the sixth inning. After Boyd departed with one out and the bases empty, reliever Cory Burns (L, 2-2) allowed a single to Josh Rodriguez, who moved up to second on a groundout by Aderlin Rodriguez. Dustin Lawley doubled home the runner, and would come in himself two batters later on a single by Gavin Cecchini to give Binghamton the final 2-1 advantage.
Burn's took the loss, coughing up two runs on four hits in 1.2 innings of work while fanning two. Greg Burke tossed a scoreless frame of relief with one strikeout for the Fisher Cats.
Clearwater 2 Dunedin 4
From milb: The Dunedin Blue Jays (10-12) toppled the Clearwater Threshers (11-11), 4-2, behind a phenomenal start by RHP Jeremy Gabryswski on Friday night in the homestand finale.
Gabryszwski fired 6.2 innings of work during his stellar outing. He allowed six hits but did not allow a single run during the contest, exiting in the seventh frame. He walked one and struck out one.
The Jays did not waste much time getting on the scoreboard. Dawel Lugo singled with two outs in the first setting the stage for Matt Dean. Dean promptly smacked his fourth homer of the season good for two runs.
Dunedin tacked another one in the third when Jorge Saez doubled and later scored on a fielding error. They weren't down offensively, though, scoring again in the seventh when Saez doubled for a second time. This time he would score via a wild pitch making the game 4-0.
Saez's run in the third inning proved to be the game winner as Clearwater plated two runs in the ninth inning. Flamethrower, Jimmy Cordero, closed the game and locked the save by striking out Andrew Knapp with the bases loaded for the final out to end the scoring threat. It was Cordero's first save of the season, he faced one batter.
Bowling Green 6 Lansing 1
From milb: The Bowling Green Hot Rods (13-9) swatted three home runs to support the pitching of Henry Centeno, handing the Lansing Lugnuts (14-8) a 6-1 loss in front of a Friday night crowd of 8,464 at Cooley Law School Stadium.
The attendance was the highest of the season to date, home or road.
Bowling Green trimmed Lansing’s lead atop the Midwest League’s Eastern Division to one game, with two games yet to be played in the series.
Starting pitcher Starlyn Suriel (L, 1-1) had not allowed a home run in 17 1/3 innings entering the evening, but gave up back-to-back shots to Casey Gillaspie and Justin Williams in the second and a long roadtripper to Nick Ciuffo in the fourth.
The right-hander finished the outing by setting down the final eight Hot Rods he faced, working six innings with eight hits, four runs, and three strikeouts on his line.
Bowling Green added a pair of insurance runs in the ninth off Mark Biggs on a two-run single by Riley Unroe.
Lansing’s lineup, meanwhile, was stymied by 20-year-old Henry Centeno (W, 1-0), who stranded eight runners in six shutout innings.
The Lugnuts’ only run came in the ninth. In his first at-bat in the MWL, pinch-hitter Boomer Collins doubled to left and came in on an Anthony Alford RBI single.
Collins was one of two Lugs making his season debut. The other was starting right fielder J.D. Davis, who went 3-for-4 with a stolen base.
3 Stars
3rd star: Matt Boyd
2nd star: Matt Dean
1st star: Jeremy Gabryszwski
