BUFFALO, N.Y. — It was the pitchers that had the upper hand on a chilly Friday night at Sahlen Field in a 6-1 Bisons defeat to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. The two staffs combined to collect 26 strikeouts, including a bit of history for Herd reliever Dusty Isaacs, as Buffalo fell for the first time in 2019.
Each side picked up a baker's dozen of K/s with RailRiders starter Nestor Cortes fanning nine batters over 5.2 innings to earn the win. He allowed just three base runners, with two of the hits a single and double for Bo Bichette -his first two Triple-A hits.
Isaacs, meanwhile, led the Bisons with seven strikeouts in relief of starter Shawn Morimando, all of which came in consecutive fashion. He struck out Zack Zehner with two on in the fourth to get out of a jam and then set down the side in the next two frames. Six of the seven strikeouts were swinging.
The only other Bisons pitcher in the modern era to strike out seven consecutive batters was righty Jason Bere, who accomplished the feat when he struck out 11 in a rehab start for Buffalo on May 17, 2003.
Morimando had four strikeouts in his Bisons debut, but yielded a pair of runs in the first inning. Former Herd infielder Gio Urshela doubled home Trey Amburgey three batters into the contest and Mandy Alvarez brought him home with another hit into the left field corner.
Buffalo was held off the scoreboard until the seven inning when Andy Burns launched a solo home run high up into the left field net off reliever, Danny Coulombe. The shot was one of only four hits for the Bisons on the night.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre added two runs in both the eighth and ninth innings, three of which were unearned. Urshela and Ryan McBroom singled and scored in the eighth on a fielding error and doubleplay. A second Bisons error in the ninth allowed two more runs to come across.
