McDowell's blast helps Herd walk it off on big night for Bisons catchers

Wednesday night was a big night for Bisons catchers.

In a game that featured the amazing return of Payton Henry to the Bisons roster, fellow Herd backstop Max McDowell clubbed a two-run walk-off home run to lift Buffalo to a 7-6 victory over Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in 10th innings at Sahlen Field.

Henry was the Bisons starting catcher, his first professional game at any level since being hospitalized from a follow-through swing in a contest on May 31 in Syracuse. He played his scheduled five innings and then gave way to McDowell in the top half of the sixth.

Four innings later, McDowell won the game for the Bisons with his seventh home run of the year. The RailRiders scored their free base runner in the top half of the 10^th inning, but with the teams playing extra innings on consecutive nights, ran out of available bullpen arms. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre turned to outfielder Oscar Gonzalez to pitch and McDowell clubbed the second pitch he saw to deep left-center for the 387-foot walk off home run.

Before McDowell’s heroics, it was a heroic return to the lineup for Henry and the catcher should no rust from time away from the team. He made an immediate impact in the contest as he challenged a pair of pitches in the top of the first that were both reversed to strikes and punched out Ben Rice and then Oswald Peraza. Then in his first at-bat, the backstop lined a sharp single into right field.

In the third, Henry made a very alert play jumping out from behind the dish to field a slow roller from Peraza. He fielded the grounder with a bare hand and threw around Peraza to complete the 2-3 putout.

The Bisons and RailRiders went to extra innings for the second straight night again thanks to a Herd rally. Buffalo found themselves trailing 5-1 at the stretch but used the longball in a four-run bottom of the seventh. After Will Robertson and Riley Tirotta led off the inning with hits, Buffalo manager Casey Candaele went to the bench and called on Damiano Palmegiani to pinch hit. Palmegiani delivered in a big way, blasting a three-run home run into the Bully Hill Party Deck for his 18^th home run of the season.

Two batters later, Rafael Lantigua tied the game with a solo shot out to center, his fourth home run of 2024.

The Bisons used seven pitchers themselves in securing their 68^th win of the season, a night after using eight pitchers in Tuesday’s defeat. The most important work was done by Emmanuel Ramirez, who came into the game with RailRider runners on second and third with only one out in the eighth. The righty got a fielder’s choice from Gonzalez as Palmegiani threw out the lead runner at the plate. Ramirez then struck out Greg Allen to end the inning.

The win for Buffalo went to Paxton Schultz who gave up the unearned run in the top of the 10^th inning. He’s now 6-3 on the season. Easton Lucas started for the Bisons and allowed just one earned run on one hit in five innings of work. He struck out six.