Rainer Nunez and Orelvis Martinez homered and Riley Tirotta delivered three run-scoring hits as the Bisons closed out their week-long series with an 8-4 victory over the Red Sox, Sunday afternoon at Sahlen Field. Buffalo pitching chipped in 12 strikeouts as the Herd earned a split of the six-game set with Worcester.
The Bisons’ offense didn’t make anything easy for WooSox pitchers as the Herd’s leadoff batter reached base in each of the first six innings with Buffalo scoring in five of those frames.
Joey Loperfido singled to lead off the first and was hit by a pitch to open the third, both times scoring on base hits from Tirotta. Nunez belted his fourth home run of the year to lead off the fifth to tie the game at four.
Then to start the fifth, Will Robertson lined a base hit to right field off WooSox reliever, Austin Adams. Two batters later, Martinez crushed a 1-1 fastball 404 feet out to left for his fifth home run of the year. The Bisons designated hitter hit the pitch 107.4 mph and gave Buffalo the lead for good.
With the Bisons now holding the 6-4 advantage, Tirotta tacked on two more to cap off the third 4-RBI game of his career. After Josh Rivera’s leadoff single and Loperfido’s walk, Tirotta dropped a soft line drive just in front of a dive from left fielder Roman Anthony to score both runners. Tirotta finished the game 3-4 with two doubles and a run scored.
Tirotta had a pair of 4-RBI efforts with the Bisons last season, July 10 in Lehigh Valley and when he hit a grand slam on August 22 against Omaha in Buffalo.
The Bisons bullpen locked down the win with six shutout innings of relief. Paxton Schultz relieved starter Andres Tolhurst three batters into the fourth and struck out five of the 12 batters he faced. Eric Pardinho, Kevin Gowdy and Tommy Nance closed out the win with four more punchouts over the final three innings of the contest.
The Bisons will take Monday off before leaving for Lehigh Valley for a six-game series against the IronPigs.
