Mejia Pitches Well, Bisons Come Away With 9-3 Victory

Jenrry Mejia is starting to settle back into the Buffalo rotation, and continued to do so quite nicely with a 9-3 victory Sunday over the Pawtucket Red Sox.

Mejia took the mound in the top of the first for just his third start since being plugged back into the Buffalo rotation. As a reliever this season, Mejia had a 5.48 ERA in 21.1 innings for Buffalo, prompting the Mets front office to make him a starter again.On Sunday, he made the Mets front office with a very solid performance.

The action got started, however in the bottom of the second, when the Bisons led off the scoring with two runs. The first one came on a failed pickoff attempt by Red Sox starter Zach Stewart, who threw the ball away and allowed Adam Loewen to score. A few batters later, Fred Lewis hit an RBI-single that plated Josh Satin and gave the Bisons a 2-0 lead. The next inning, it continued when Zach Steward once again had trouble, this time throwing a wild pitch and allowing Lucas Duda to go from second to third. Then, Zach Lutzcapitalized with a sacrifice fly, making it 3-0.

The only real trouble for the Bisons came in the top of the fifth, when Pawtucket scored two unearned runs off Jenrry Mejia, cutting the lead to just one run. Matt Tuiasosopo both made throwing errors in the inning. That would be all for Mejia on the night. He was very solid though and made it all the way through five innings, despite only throwing 70 pitches. He was charged with two unearned runs on six hits over five innings. He only walked one and struck out two.

In the next few innings, the Bisons capitalized on some huge mistakes by Pawtucket and opened up a huge lead. Thanks to a balk and a missed catch, Buffalo scored two in the fifth and three in the sixth, opening up an 8-2 advantage. From then on, it was up to the relief core to close the door. The only run the Bisons allowed in the late-game was charged to Robert Carson, who also gave up two hits. In the end, the Bisons went away with a 9-3 win.

Herd Rumblings: Mejia now has a 0.95 ERA in six starts with the Bisons this season, compared to his 5.48 ERA as a relief pitcher. In 12.1 innings since returning to the rotation, he has allowed only one earned run. On offense, the production was very spread out. Six Bisons had RBI, and six had base-hits. Lucas Duda was 3-for-5 with three runs scored. Josh Rodriguez was 2-for-5 with a home run. Jeurys Familia takes the mound at 7:05 tonight, looking to bounce back from  few bad starts against Pawtucket.