Bisons and RailRiders split entertaining twin bill on Monday

MOOSIC, PA - The Buffalo Bisons began their final road trip of the season with a split against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders on Monday night at PNC Field. Buffalo won game one 5-4 in 10 innings, with the RailRiders winning an 11-inning contest in game two 8-7.

Game one was the resumption of a suspended game that began on August 7. The game restarted tied 1-1 with no outs in the bottom of the sixth inning and Shaun Anderson pitching for the Bisons. The righty logged three innings for Buffalo and did not receive a decision in relief.

Tyler Wade gave Scranton/Wilkes-Barre a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the seventh inning with a solo home run off of Anderson, but the Herd answered right back next half inning. Davis Schneider and Trevor Schwecke hit back-to-back home runs for Buffalo against Jose Mujica to give the team a 3-2 lead in the top of the eighth.

The RailRiders answered right back in a back-and-forth contest for a pair of runs and 4-3 lead through eight frames. Nathan Lukes led off the top of the ninth with a base hit, moved up to second base on a fly ball to right field, and a wild pitch allowed him to take third base. The veteran outfielder scored on an L.J. Talley sacrifice fly to shallow right center field to tie the game 4-4.

Matt Gage came out of the Bisons bullpen and worked two scoreless innings, including the bottom of the ninth to extend the game to extra innings. Addison Barger was the automatic baserunner at second and scored thanks a Rafael Lantigua RBI single to centerfield. Gage used a strikeout and caught stealing for a double play in the bottom of the 10th, and then forced a groundout to end the game.

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre wasted no time scoring in game two, posting a three-run bottom of the first innings thanks to a Ronald Guzman two-run home run. The three runs came against starter Jose De Leon, who worked 1.1 innings for Buffalo.

The Bisons would eventually tie the score at three by scoring solo runs in a trio of innings, including the top of the fifth. Stevie Berman belted his eighth home run of the season in the top of the second frame to get the visitors on the scoreboard, 3-1. The deficit was trimmed to 3-2 thanks to a wild pitch that scored Barger in the third. Then a Yoshi Tsutsugo RBI base hit tied the game 3-3 in the fifth.

However, the RailRiders would answer right away and eventually take a 6-3 lead to the top of the ninth inning. Barger continues to impress at Triple-A, extending his hitting streak to seven games with a pair of hits. That included a three-run home run in the top of the ninth inning to help tie Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 6-6.

The 22-year-old is batting .385, 10-26, with three home runs and eight RBIs in just seven games with Buffalo. Barger has also had a walk-off base hit in his first game with the team, and two of his three homers came against Rochester last week.

Each team scored in the 10th inning for a 7-7 tie, but an RBI double by Michael Beltre in the bottom of the 11th drove in the winning run for the RailRiders to allow the team to split the night with Buffalo and keep their playoff hopes alive.

The Bisons and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre are scheduled to meet on Tuesday night at 6:35 p.m. at PNC Field for the second-to-last game of the 2022 regular season.