Offense Struggles In 4-1 Bisons Loss

One night after beating the Pawtucket Red Sox in a squeaker at Fenway Park, the Buffalo offense struggled once again, losing 4-1.

Jeurys Familia took the mound trying to build on his dominant performance in his last start against Lehigh Valley, when he tossed seven shutout innings, allowing only four hits and striking out eight. He kept the Bisons in the game, but it sure wasn’t pretty. Familia allowed the PawSox to score two in the bottom of the third, one on a throwing error by Familia himself, which put runners on second and third and also gave Pawtucket a 1-0 lead. Two batters later, the Bisons turned two, but a run scored making it 2-0 in favor of Pawtucket.

Two innings later, after Zach Lutz homered in the fourth to cut the score to 2-1, Familia allowed Pawtucket to score again, this time giving up a walk with the bases loaded. Familia was taken out after allowing three runs on five hits. Not a bad line, but he also walked five batters and threw only 57% of his 92 pitches for strikes.

On the other side, the Bisons were getting shut down. Bill Buckner was pitching a fantastic game for Pawtucket, and allowed just one run on three hits in six innings. The offense looked lost once again and scratched out only five hits. They were unable to score against Pawtucket’s bullpen and in the end, fell by a score of 4-1.

Herd Rumblings: Familia has been very inconsistent this season. It looked like he had turned a corner on July 18 when he tossed eight innings of one-run baseball, but then had a string of bad outings. Then, after another great start in his last outing, he struggled again last night, walking way too many batters. He has walked over five batters per nine innings with Buffalo this season. For the Buffalo offense, it was another depressing night. Zach Lutz had two hits, but that was about it for Buffalo. Lucas Duda was 0-for-3 with two walks. Matt den Dekker was 1-for-4. Josh Satin was 0-for-4.Chris Schwinden gets the start tomorrow for the Bisons. First pitch is at 7:05.