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 Buffalo Bisons

In First Bisons Start, Logue Dominates in 5-0 Victory 

June 18, 2021 - International League (IL)
Buffalo Bisons News Release


If Zach Logue keeps pitching as he did in his first career Triple-A start Friday, he might not be with the Buffalo Bisons long.

The 25-year-old southpaw from Ohio made his first start for the Herd on Friday night and made a jaw-dropping first impression earning the win in a 5-0 beatdown of the Red Wings at Frontier Field.

Logue started the game perfect for 4.2 innings before surrendering a groundball single in the fifth. He followed the hit finishing with seven more consecutive outs. All told, the southpaw worked seven innings, allowing no runs and just one hit while striking out eight.

He had a strong mix of a fastball, which he kept up in the zone and between 90-94 MPH, and a slider that he had diving towards the back foot of the hitter. Following the Red Wings' only hit, Logue lowered his pitch count as the game moved along. After throwing 12, 13, 14 and 14 pitches in each of the first four innings, Logue threw just 10 pitches in the fifth, 11 in the sixth and just nine in the seventh.

Logue had made seven starts this season with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats going 3-1 and posted 4.54 ERA prior to the spectacular start. He continues a trend of impactful first career starts at the Triple-A level from Bisons' pitchers, much like Alek Manoah's and his impressive debut in May. Manoah posted a similar stat line in his first Triple-A start working six innings, allowing two hits and no runs and striking out 12 and was quickly rushed to the Blue Jays after only three starts.

The game's only offense came primarily from the bats of Kevin Smith and Dilson Herrera.

The Bisons cashed in for three runs on a trio of doubles in the third inning. Herrera slapped an opposite-field ground-rule double into the stands in right field before Breyvic Valera got on with a two-out walk. Richard Urena and Smith went back-to-back with doubles to drive them home and open the scoring.

Smith remained scorching hot in the series. The shortstop added his sixth hits in the series with the double and his second extra-base hits this week.

Herrera hit another ball out of the field of play in the fourth inning, but this time without bouncing. The designated hitter launched a 448-foot two-run homer to dead center with a magnificent bat flip to compliment it.

Juan Graterol admired the blast from first base after reaching on a single and came around the bases to score as well and give the Bisons a 5-0 lead.

Red-hot Red Wings lefty Josh Rogers, 2-0 with a 0.77 ERA during his time with Rochester, made the start and was promptly cooled off by the Bisons' bats exiting after allowing five runs and six hits over 5.2 innings.

After Logue exited, Dany Jimenez navigated the eighth perfectly striking out a pair before lefty reliever Travis Bergen made his season debut for the Bisons in the ninth. Bergen closed up the game easily with 18 pitches in his first appearance for the Bisons since August of 2019.

For a team that had lost six of nine heading into a six-game series with the Red Wings (15-25), a struggling Rochester team was exactly what the doctor ordered for the Bisons (20-18). Following Friday's win, they have taken three of the first four games of the series and improved to two games over .500.

After outscoring the Red Wings 24-5 through the first four games for the series the Bisons have all of the momentum behind them headed into game five.


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International League Stories from June 18, 2021


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