Bisons rally comes up short in series opener at Lehigh Valley

ALLENTOWN, PA - The Buffalo Bisons struggled to keep up with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs on Tuesday night at Coca-Cola Park despite three solo home runs, falling 5-3 in the series opener.

In the top of the first inning, Nathan Lukes gave the Bisons an early lead with a home run. Lukes’s sixth homer of the season put the Herd up 1-0. It was the first of the trio of solo homers for the team throughout the course of the night.

Andrew Bash started strong on the mound to start the game, pitching three shutout innings to begin the game. However, Aramis Garcia evened the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the fourth inning with a solo home run to left field. After the Bisons rebounded by recording two quick outs, the IronPigs gained the advantage on a Nick Podkul base hit into right field, scoring Simon Muzziotti for a 2-1 lead over Buffalo.

The Bisons would respond right away, however. Steward Berroa hit a solo home run in the top of the fifth inning against IronPigs starter Ricardo Pinto. Berroa’s fifth homer of the year helped the Bisons to tie the game at 2-2.

A big reason why the game was close in the first five innings was the pitching each team received from their starting pitchers. For Buffalo, Bash finished his outing recording 4.0 innings pitched allowing two earned runs on five hits also recording four strikeouts. For Lehigh Valley, Pinto finished with 4.2 innings pitched, allowing four hits and two earned runs. In addition, the right hander also struck out three Bisons hitters.

Mike Mayers came on in relief of Bash and struck out the side in the bottom of the fifth. But Lehigh Valley broke the tie in the bottom of the sixth as Scott Kingery hit a two-run home run. Kingery’s twelfth home run of the year pushed the IronPigs to a 4-2 advantage.

Lehigh Valley would bring a fresh arm into the game to start the eighth inning as Yunior Marte replaced Nick Nelson. Despite the move, Addison Barger hit a solo shot to right center field. Barger’s eighth homer on the year would bring the Bisons within one of Lehigh Valley, 4-3. The 407-foot home run had an exit velocity of 105.8 mph.

The IronPigs, however, would push the lead back out as Kingery hit his second home run of the game in the eighth inning. The veteran infielder’s 13th home run of the season extended the Lehigh Valley lead to 5-3. After the solo shot, the IronPigs threatened to score again as Lehigh Valley had a baserunner standing on third with one out. The Bisons would get out of the inning limiting the damage, as Addison Barger caught a pop-up hit by Darick Hall and threw out the runner heading for home.

Despite the late score in the eighth inning by the Herd, they would fail to get runners across the plate in the ninth inning.

The Bisons will look for a win tomorrow night as they will play Lehigh Valley for the second game of the six-game series. First pitch is set for 6:45 p.m. at Coca-Cola Park.