IL Buffalo Bisons

Bisons Stay Hot in Series Opener against Lehigh Valley 12-2

Published on June 29, 2021 under International League (IL)
Buffalo Bisons News Release


With a pair of major league catchers with the Herd on rehab assignments, the Buffalo Bisons decided to put their bats on display beating up on the floundering Leigh Valley IronPigs 12-2 on Tuesday night at Trenton Thunder Ballpark.

Back in their temporary home at Trenton Thunder Ballpark, Buffalo welcomed Alejandro Kirk in the designated hitter spot and Danny Jansen catching into their red-hot lineup. The duo helped elevate a Buffalo offense that was jumpstarted by a 10-2 road trip in which they averaged 6.5 runs per game.

"They are just tremendous with our players communicating with the guys and just talking to them and telling them they got a great thing going," said Bisons' manager Casey Candaele. "It is great to be in this clubhouse and they are just giving them all kinds of positive feedback about how they're doing and going about their businesses."

The scoring onslaught began when Buffalo walked the bases loaded in the third and Richard Urena continued on his scorched earth campaign driving in the tying run on a fielder's choice ground out to second. The RBI gave Urena his eighth in seven games, 17th in June, and Buffalo's first run of the game despite zero hits.

After striking out in the second inning, Kevin Smith swung at the first pitch he saw in the third crushing his team-leading 11th home run of the season to left field for a three-run long ball. The blast broke the game open giving the Bisons a 4-1 lead. Jansen helped set up the home run running out a slow hit ground out to avoid an inning-ending double play. A promising sign for Jansen's return to the Toronto Blue Jays.

Smith hit another ball sky-high in the fifth, but it only reached the warning track. The flyball came with the bases loaded and drove home Alejandro Kirk to give Smith 37 RBIs for the season, good for the second-most in Triple-A East.

Playing the outfield for the first time in his major league career, Smith continued his hot month of June with a four-RBI night. During June Smith has been smoking the ball hitting .313 with 17 RBIs, five home runs and eight multi-hit games in 24 starts.

"I am really not trying to anything crazy, just trying to really hit balls hard up the middle and focus on barreling as many balls as I can and kind of let the chips fall as they may," said Smith. "But not trying to get too high or too low, just to stay consistent in my plan and kind of barrel balls and see what happens."

The lead ballooned in the sixth as Logan Warmoth continued his eight-game hitting streak with an RBI double into the gap in left before Valera and Kirk generated consecutive RBI sacrifice fly balls to push extend the lead to six. Rowdy Tellez capped off the scoring pop lining his second home run with the Herd off the right-field pole to provide Buffalo with a 9-2 advantage. The free-swinging carried into the seventh as Buffalo loaded the bases and Dilson Herrera and Warmoth singled home a total of three runs before Leigh Valley even recorded an out.

Not to be overshadowed by the offense, TJ Zeuch got the start for the Herd and put together another impressive performance that he continues to string together in June.

Early on Zeuch's off speed pitches struggled to break and hung in the zone allowing the IronPigs to produce six hits and one run over the first three innings. However, he picked up steam the longer his outing went.

The 6'7" righty got the job done pitching 5.2 innings and allowing two runs on eight hits while striking out five to earn his first victory of the month. Zeuch's night was done after he surrendered a home run to Ryan Cordell with two outs in the sixth, the first he had surrendered since May 18th and an unfortunate end to a stellar performance.

"He did a great job of kind of making pitches when he needed. He got into a little bit of trouble but battled out of it," said Candaele. "That's always keys when a pitcher maybe struggles in the early innings but then can finish up strong and kind of get in a groove."

After allowing 12 runs over 19 innings of work and posting a 5.7 ERA in May, Zeuch has lowered his ERA to 4.24 after June where he has allowed just nine runs and posted a 3.9 ERA in 20.2 innings of work.

With a game one victory and the Worcester Red Sox suffering a loss Tuesday night the Bisons (28-19) moved into a tie for second place in the Triple-A Northeast division. The Herd will chase sole possession of second place against the lowest-scoring offense in Triple-A East, 3.97 runs per game, Wednesday for game two.

Righty Thomas Hatch is expected to make for the start for Buffalo with the first pitch scheduled for 7:00 p.m. from Trenton Thunder Ballpark.

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International League Stories from June 29, 2021


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