Bisons set to return home after 9-0 thumping of Bulls in Durham
The Bisons ended an otherwise tough road swing to Durham on a triumphant note, shutting down the Bulls, 9-0, on a rainy Sunday afternoon at Durham Bulls Athletic Park. Steward Berroa homered and Alan Roden picked up right were he left off after his impressive August with four more RBI
The Bisons ended an otherwise tough road swing to Durham on a triumphant note, shutting down the Bulls, 9-0, on a rainy Sunday afternoon at Durham Bulls Athletic Park. Steward Berroa homered and Alan Roden picked up right were he left off after his impressive August with four more RBI on the first day in September.
The Bisons victory salvages a game in the six-game series in North Carolina. The Herd will now return to Sahlen Field for the penultimate homestand of the season, a six-game series against Lehigh Valley that begins Tuesday night at 6:05 p.m.
In just his second game after nearly two months with the Blue Jays, Berroa made an instant impact early in Sunday’s contest. The speedster led off the game with a walk, battling back from an 0-2 count to earn the free pass from Bulls starter, Jacob Lopez. Steward then raced to second base on his 31st stolen base of the season and scored on Josh Kasevich's sacrifice foul out with an excellent slide to the corner of the plate to avoid a tag.
Then in the second, Berroa increased the Bisons lead to 4-0 when he hammered the first pitch he saw in his second look at Lopez for a three-run home run. Berroa’s ninth home run of the season left the bat at 102.8 mph and cleared the DBAP’s famous 'Hit Bull' sign atop the ballpark’s large left field wall.
Berroa played 24 games with the Blue Jays after receiving his first big league promotion in early July before being optioned back to Buffalo on Friday. He’s averaged.287 in his 68 games with Buffalo this year with a .445 slugging pct.
A 4-0 Bisons lead would grow to 9-0 thanks to the red-hot Roden. After hitting .354 with 13 extra-base hits in 26 August games, the outfielder continued his torrid stretch at the plate with four more hits on Sunday. With Buffalo leading 5-0 and two outs in the top half of the sixth inning, Roden drilled a two-run single to center to put the game out of reach at 7-0.
Two innings later, Roden added two more RBI when he dropped a double just over the retreating shortstop’s head and into shallow left field. The four runs driven in the game gave him 33 on the season in just 58 contests. Roden now has an impressive 24 hits in his last 14 games, raising his Triple-A average up 50 points to .308.
Trenton Wallace started for the Bisons and worked the first three innings of the shutout. The southpaw struck out six of the 13 batters he faced without issuing a walk. Andrew Bash got the win for his three innings of one-hit baseball, improving to 4-0 on the year.
Mason Fluharty and Hayden Juenger finished off the five-hit shutout by providing hitless relief for the Herd.