There's still time for the Buffalo Bisons to claim their first International League playoff berth since 2005. But their big August stampede hit a big roadblock this week.

The Herd dropped an 8-3, 10-inning decision to the Pawtucket Red Sox on Wednesday night before 7,737 soggy patrons in Coca-Cola Field and again failed to pick up ground in the International League wild-card race.

The Bisons swept lowly Rochester three straight to open the homestand and then took the opener of this series to improve to 17-3 in a 20-game stretch. Then things came apart.

Pawtucket swept Sunday's doubleheader and took four of the final five games. With 14 games left, the Herd is still two behind Columbus in the wild-card chase after the Clippers lost in 12 innings at Toledo, 5-4.

Pawtucket won the game on Jorge Jimenez's two-out RBI single up the middle off Buffalo reliever Sean Green, who had gotten in trouble with a pair of one-out walks in the 10th. Josh Reddick followed with a grand slam to right off Adam Pettyjohn for his fourth homer in the last three games.

"It's really tough to take when you see the other teams lose," said Herd manager Ken Oberkfell. "That was a ballgame we should have won. I don't feel like we played a good game tonight. We didn't make adjustments offensively and you can't walk people constantly and expect to win ballgames. You're giving these guys free outs and that can't happen."

The Bisons couldn't deal with Reddick either. He went 12 for 26 in the series, including 10 for 15 over the final three games.

"This guy was Babe Ruth in this series," Oberkfell said.

"I don't ever think I've seen a hitter as hot as this guy has been the past three days," said Pawtucket manager Torey Lovullo. "It was a pretty impressive approach."

The Bisons trailed, 3-0, in the fifth but eventually pulled into a 3-3 tie on Valentino Pascucci's two-out solo homer in the eighth. In the top of the ninth, Reddick nearly snapped the tie with a drive to dead center -- but Buffalo outfielder Kirk Nieuwenhuis made a huge jump and grabbed the ball just at the orange home run line.

"Those are the kind of plays you expect from them," Lovullo said. "We knew there was a playoff run for them and we wanted to show them we weren't going to roll over and show the rest of the league, so I'm very pleased with that."

The Bisons got a bad break in the bottom of the first as they loaded the bases with one out and didn't score. Pawtucket got out of the inning as Nieuwenhuis grounded into a 3-6-3 double play to end the inning. At least that was the call of fill-in umpire Wally Bissett, a Buffalo resident who ruled Nieuwenhuis out. Replays showed otherwise.

It was a huge call as the Bisons would have had the game's first run and still had runners at the corners. Bissett, a prominent area amateur umpire, ejected Oberkfell in the ninth after calling Pawtucket's Jeremy Hermida safe on what appeared to be an inning-ending double play.

"Judgment call I felt he missed," Oberkfell said. "I really felt he missed that call in the ninth and I let him know. The guy is out there trying and I'm not blaming umpires. I'm blaming walks."

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Fernando Nieve (2-0) will start Thursday night's 7 p.m. game at Syracuse. It will be on Radio 1520 AM, Time Warner 13 and will also be broadcast in Spanish on Time Warner 87, believed to be a first in the IL's 126-year history.

Roberto Clemente Jr., son of the late Hall of Famer, will be handling the Spanish play-by-play duties.

mharrington@buffnews.comnull