Bisons win game two of double header behind strong Sanchez

The Bisons won their fifth straight game in part two of a double header last night. It was another hard fought battle with Columbus that took late game heroics from Andy LaRoche. LaRoche scored the third and final run of the game in the sixth inning to give The Herd the dramatic 3-2 victory.

Aaron Sanchez was on the hill against Indians young talent Danny Salazar for the seven inning night cap. Both starters threw well showing off some of their best and nastiest stuff. Sanchez came out strong early with great fastball command that he combined with a filthy low 90's changeup and his go to curveball. This unfair mix of pitches worked to strikeout seven Clippers in juts 4.1 innings for Sanchez. He only came out that early because the strikeouts forced his pitch count up to 87 with roughly a 90 pitch limit.

There were some struggles for Sanchez as the game went on, but manager Gary Allenson did not seem concerned. The young righty lost control in the second and fourth innings walking a pair in each, but he was able to limit the Clippers to just one run. Raul Valdes did a great job in relief of Sanchez giving up just a solo home run in 2.2 strong innings of work.

For Salazar things were going great through four innings. Despite being just a one run game the Bisons really seemed out of it with the way he was pitching. Salazar used his electric stuff to strikeout five in the first four innings and it looked as if though he was on his way to another dominant inning in the fifth, but a two out single from Darin Mastroianni kept the Bisons alive. The next batter was Adron Chambers who ripped the game tying home run over the right center field wall. At this point Buffalo seemed destined to win.

It took rare base running heroics from Andy LaRoche to do it, but win they did. LaRoche got on board in the sixth beating the shift for a single. He then advanced to third on a single from Ryan Schimpf. It was a dangerously close play at third and a better throw may have got him, but that does not matter. LaRoche scored shortly after on another close play as a slow grounder from Eric Kratz was enough to plate the winning run.

The Bisons will look to build on their winning streak tonight with the third game against Columbus. Deck McGuire will be on the mound for the early 1 p.m. start.