Linden MVP, Buzachero Named Hometown Hero

The Buffalo Bisons today announced that OF Todd Linden has been named the team's Stan Barron Most Valuable Player for the 2008 season. The slugger accepted his honor in a pre-game ceremony just prior to the Herd's Fan Appreciation Night game on Wednesday, August 27 against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees.

The team also announced the creation of the "Jimmy Griffin Hometown Hero" Award in honor of the late Mayor who was such a passionate supporter of Bisons Baseball and having a downtown ballpark. This award will be given to the player who performs the best in home games in front of the fans of Buffalo. RHP Bubbie Buzachero, who was 3-1 with four saves and a 2.23ERA in 20 games at Dunn Tire Park, has been named the first ever Jimmy Griffin Hometown Hero.

Jason Cooper drove in both Bisons' runs

The Buffalo Bisons were unable to pull off a win Wednesday night, which was Fan Appreciation Night at Dunn Tire Park, falling to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees 3-2.

The Herd got an excellent performance from starter Bryan Bullington, who lasted seven innings. Unfortunately for Bullington, he didn't get enough help from his offense for a victory.

Solo home runs Ben Broussard and Nick Green, followed by an RBI-single by Melky Cabrera would be all the Yankees needed to win their second-straight in Buffalo.

Pawtucket leads way with four players, including Player and Pitcher of the Year

If the Boston Red Sox need another testimonial to the talent in their organization, the International League postseason All-Star team showed the Pawtucket Red Sox (81-56) are the undisputed heavyweight of the league, earning four bids and two individual awards on Tuesday.

With his league-leading .967 OPS, outfielder Jeff Bailey was not just an All-Star but also the IL's Most Valuable Player. This is Bailey's fifth season with Pawtucket and unquestionably his most productive: he ranks third in the league with 25 home runs, 11th with 75 RBIs and 11th with a .301 batting average. Bailey was called up to the Major League squad on three different occasions, playing 10 total games with Boston.

New York fans would prefer to see their high-priced lefty pitching in the Bronx, but Kei Igawa is having an All-Star caliber year in the International League.

Igawa delivered six shutout innings and held the Bisons to just four hits in a 9-1 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre victory on Tuesday night from Dunn Tire Park. Buffalo has now lost three straight to the Yanks with two more home games left in the 2008 season.

Melkey Cabrera, Shelly Duncan also on Scranton/WB team

The Buffalo Bisons will face the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees for their Final Three Home Games of the 2008 season, Tuesday, August 26 - Thursday, August 28. Coming with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre team are several players that will be familiar to New York Yankee fans.

The scheduled pitching match-ups for the three game series include LHP Kei Igawa (13-5) against Bisons team-leader in wins, LHP John Halama (8-5), on Tuesday. For Fan Appreciation Night on Wednesday, August 27, the Yankees are scheduled to throw prospect RHP Phil Hughes (0-0) against Buffalo's RHP Bryan Bullington (5-8). LHP Chase Wright (2-0) is expected to go against Buffalo's LHP David Huff (5-4) on Thursday for the final home game of the season.

Their parent club may be the Bronx Bombers, but the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees put on an impressive display of small ball to beat the Bisons on Monday night.

The Yankees pounded out 20 hits, including 17 singles, in a 7-2 victory over the Herd from PNC Field. Shortstop Nick Green had four of the hits as the Yanks handed Aaron Laffey only his second defeat in 23 starts as a Bison.

Laffey was 15-1 in his last 22 starts as a Bison, including a 6-1 mark with the team this year. But the Yanks hit the southpaw for 16 hits in five plus innings of work on Monday to hand him only his fifth Triple-A defeat.

By Doug Smith

It was an eighth inning in August. The Bisons and Indy were tied 2-2. Indy had runners on second and third, one out, infield in. The Herd hurler induced a hard grounder to ex-Niagara Rapid Jorge Velandia at short. The runner on third broke for home, “out for sure unless nobody flubs it,” as Mark Harris notes in “It Looked Like For Ever.” Velandia scooped it up and …

And held onto it, frozen in dilemma as whether to throw to home or first. The winning run scored while the savviest player on the field was looking to the ball for advice. It typified the goofy year of the rain delay. Other oddities:

Rookie throws complete game but Yankees win

For Buffalo's Scott Lewis, one pitch was the difference between an outstanding gem and his second loss with the team.

Lewis (1-2) pitched wonderfully for the Bisons but a two-run home run off the bat of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre's Ben Broussard was enough for the Yankees to collect a 2-0 victory from PNC Field on Sunday night.

Seven years ago, on the August night his No. 30 was retired by the Buffalo Bisons, Jeff Manto chilled a near-sellout crowd at Dunn Tire Park.

“l looked on the map and it said I was moving farther away from home,” Manto told the crowd of the day he was traded to the Bisons. “As I drove down the New York State Thruway, little did I know that I was headed home.”

Manto, given three standing ovations that emotional night, will return home once more.

As the International League regular season winds down to its final 10 days, sub-.500 teams like the Buffalo Bisons and the Syracuse Chiefs have little at stake, except maybe fourth place in the North Division.

The fifth-place Bisons (now 63-70) moved within a half-game of the Chiefs in that battle, beating fourth-place Syracuse (62-68) in a sloppy 6-3 victory before 5,677 at Alliance Bank Stadium on Friday night.

The teams combined for six errors and scored four unearned runs in a 3v-hour game decided when Syracuse committed two errors in the seventh inning.

The Bisons have had the brooms in their hands a couple of times this season, but just haven't been able to pick up that elusive four-game sweep.

The IronPigs stymied the Herd's most recent attempt at a sweep with a 7-3 victory over Buffalo on Thursday afternoon at Dunn Tire Park. Brandon Watson had three hits and a three-run home run as Lehigh Valley salvaged the final game of the series.

Pronk doubles, walks twice and drives in 2

Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez have certainly given the Buffalo Bisons a major league one-two punch.

The Bisons improved to 3-0 with the rehabbing sluggers as they defeated the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, 10-5, Wednesday night in front of 11,359 at Dunn Tire Park. Buffalo has also won five of their last six games since last Friday.

Martinez and Hafner have alternated days in the Bisons lineup as they work their way back from injuries. Pronk's rehab assignment began on Monday meaning he was back in the line-up on Wednesday night for the Herd.

Outfielder Jason Cooper has played in his 401st game as a Buffalo Bison, the most in the team's Modern Era. Cooper came into Tuesday night's game against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs as a defensive replacement in the top of the eighth inning.

He remained in the game and doubled in the bottom of the eighth inning

TROY Hometown hero David Flores hit a two-out, two-run double in the bottom of the ninth inning Tuesday night, lifting the National League to a 4-3 victory over the Americans in the New York-Penn League All-Star Game before 6,149 fans at Bruno Stadium.

Flores, batting with runners on first and second, drove a ball to the warning track, where left fielder Robert Widlansky of Aberdeen had it in his glove, then lost it as he hit the fence. The play was scored a double. J.B. Shuck, Flores' Tri-City teammate, scored the tying run and Charles Cutler of Batavia the game winner.

Victor Martinez scored once and drove in two in rehab game

The Buffalo Bisons' bats continued to sizzle on Tuesday night as they hit the Lehigh Valley IronPigs for a 10-1 win at Dunn Tire Park. Victor Martinez made a rehab start for the Herd, helping them score three runs.

Martinez played six innings in his first rehab start at catcher with the Bisons. He is making his way back from elbow surgery that he underwent in June. The former American League All-Star was 1-2 with a walk, single and sacrifice fly, knocking in two RBI and scoring a run.

The IronPigs would score their only run in the first inning, as they were held to only four hits all night.