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IL Buffalo Bisons

Bisons Win Again, But 'Final Stretch' Goes to Durham

October 2, 2021 - International League (IL)
Buffalo Bisons News Release


The Northeast Division Champs have done all that they could over the last month of the season, but the out-of-town scoreboard was unkind to the Bisons one more time on Saturday night.

The Herd won their eighth straight game, 4-1, over the Syracuse Mets, but the Durham Bulls rallied for their 11th consecutive victory, 5-3 over Norfolk, moments later to capture the Triple-A 'Final Stretch' Championship.

There weren't many teams that held the tiebreaker over Buffalo in terms of the 10-game Final Stretch, but Durham is one of them. The first tiebreaker is regular season winning pct. and the Bisons finished second to the Triple-A East champions. That clinches the title for the 9-0 Bulls over the 8-1 Herd with one last game on Sunday.

There might not be any two hotter teams in baseball. With their win on Saturday night, the Bisons improved to 23-6 over their last 29 games since August 29, which included a 12-game win streak that propelled Buffalo to their first division title in 16 years. Durham was 22-7 over that same stretch.

For their part, the Bisons put the pressure on the Bulls by scoring early in their fourth of five games at NBT Bank Stadium in Syracuse. Team MVP Kevin Smith launched his club-best 21st home run of the season with two outs in the bottom of the first inning. In the second, Forrest Wall drove home Logan Warmoth and Nash Knight with an opposite field double over the head of Travis Blankenhorn just in front of the left-field wall.

In the fifth, the Bisons added to their lead thanks to arguably the best player in Triple-A baseball at this moment. Gregory Polanco's third home run in four games was a prestigious blast out to right that the Mets' outfielders just turned and admired.

Polanco added a single and has 11 hits over the last four nights in Syracuse. He's hitting .472 with five home runs, 13 RBI and a .972 slugging pct. in the nine games of the Final Stretch.

The four-run lead was more than enough as Zach Logue spun one more gem for the Bisons in 2021. Just a run on five hits helped the southpaw improve to 9-3 on the year with the Herd. Most impressive was his eight strikeouts to no walks allowed in another dominating performance.

Bisons Pitcher of the Year Bryan Baker closed out the win with a 1-2-3 ninth inning that included two strikeouts. The save was his 11th of the season.

The Bisons will now officially close out the 2021 season on Sunday afternoon with a 1:05 p.m. first pitch from Syracuse.

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