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IL Buffalo Bisons

Smith and Valera Come Through in 6-5 Walk-Off Win against Lehigh Valley

July 15, 2021 - International League (IL)
Buffalo Bisons News Release


After the Leigh Valley IronPigs tied the game in the eighth, Kevin Smith and Breyvic Valera came to rescue striking for a pair of hits in the bottom of the ninth inning to produce the Buffalo Bison's third walk-off win of the season 6-5 on Thursday night at Trenton Thunder Ballpark.

With the game knotted after an RBI bunt single by Tyler Heineman in the eighth, Valera stepped to the plate with the game tied at five.

Valera, with already two base hits on the night, slapped a leadoff single to right field and put the pressure on. Smith settled in next and wasn't in the box for long, as he laced a first-pitch slider down the left-field line into the corner to score Valera and walk-off against the IronPigs.

Late game hitting has been nothing new for the duo of Valera and Smith in 2021 who have produced all year long, a combined 11-18 in the ninth inning. But no ninth-inning hits all seasons were as big as the pair tonight fueled by the drive to help this particular Buffalo team win.

"It just comes down to it being a win or go home situation where you got to put a good at-bat together for your team," said Smith. "You grind the whole game, so you really want to go out there and compete for your guys and get a hit or hit a double or do something to help the team and put them in a better position to win the game."

Prior to Smith and Valera's ninth-inning heroics Buffalo scored in each of the first four innings to take an early lead on the IronPigs.

Smith opened the game taking a first-inning fastball high in the zone of the park to left field for his 14th home run of the year and second in the last two nights.

With early long-ball and walk-off RBI double Smith continued to push himself further up the Triple-A East statistical leader boards. Smith now ranks 4th in home runs and 2nd in RBIs with 45.

In the second, Valera lined his 10th double of the year down the right-field line to drive home Logan Warmoth, who reached on a two-out walk, to push Buffalo's lead to two. Richard Urena doubled the lead in the third driving home Riley Adams and Christian Colon to chase the IronPigs start Mark Appel out of the game after just 2.1 IP.

Valera and Warmoth teamed up again in fourth. Valera grounded a single gently through the left side of the infield and Warmoth, on with a walk again, came home from second after stealing his tenth base of the season.

Valera finished the night with a trio of hits and a pair of RBIs much to the liking of Bisons' manager Casey Candaele who has been impressed with Valera's effectiveness hitting out of the leadoff spot,

"He's very confident in his ability to see pitches and still put a good swing on the ball and get hits," said Candaele. "He's the quintessential leadoff guy in the fact. He makes pitchers work and start games off throwing quite a few pitches and usually makes them throw all the pitches they have."

Despite the offensive potency over the first half of the game, the IronPigs staged a pair of comebacks to force Buffalo to produce late-game runs.

Lefty Nick Allgeyer took the mound in for the fourth for Buffalo and surrendered a two-run home run to Mickey Moniak to lead off the inning and cut Buffalo's lead in half 4-2.

The IronPigs struck again down 5-2, striking in the sixth for another two-run home run this time by Darrick Hall and the Heineman RBI bunt single to tie the game in the eighth.

At the official halfway mark of the Triple-A season the Bisons, Thursday's win from Trenton Thunder Ballpark put the Herd 12 games over .500 and just 3.5 games out of first in the Triple-A Northeast division standings.

Buffalo will look to make it four in wins a row and eight out of ten against the IronPigs Friday night as the two teams go to battle in game four. Lefty Zach Logue is expected to start for the Bisons with the first pitch scheduled for 7:00 p.m.

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