Bisons drop the ball in latest loss
Bizarre balk gives Pawtucket a boost
Here’s all you need to know about the Buffalo Bisons’ performance on Sunday, in another bizarre entry for the diary of a forgettable season: Pitcher Bryan Bullington gave up a run to the Pawtucket Red Sox on a balk caused when he dropped the ball while standing on the mound.
Sure, there were plenty of other reasons for the 8-3 loss in Dunn Tire Park that was mostly a snorefest after Buffalo fell into a 5-2 hole through three innings.
The offense had just four hits, only one in the final five innings. Leadoff doubles were stranded in the first and fourth. Michael Aubrey dropped a pickoff throw from Bullington that would have nailed Josh Wilson at first and Wilson, initially called out by umpire Justin Vogel before the ball got away, ended up scoring the first of three Pawtucket runs in the second that gave the visitors the lead for good.
But seriously now. A balk from dropping the ball? Believe it.
With two outs in the third and runners at the corners, Bullington got set to face Jeff Corsaletti with the Bisons still in range at 3-2. As he spun the ball behind him to bring it to his glove, it appeared to catch on his hip and plopped to the ground.
There was a delayed reaction for a second from everyone on the field but because Bullington was standing on the rubber, umpires had no choice but to call an automatic balk. George Kotteras scored, Josh Wilson went to second and then scored on a Corsaletti single to make it 5-2.
Game over.
“I start with a split [-finger] grip and then move to whatever I’m going to throw and I just dropped it,” Bullington said. “Never happened to me before. Never.”
“Bryan Bullington, who is as savvy as anybody we have, goes into the stretch and drops the ball,” said a pained manager Torey Lovullo. “It’s just been a strange year with so many different happenings that I guess nothing surprises me.”
It was the capper on a frustrating day for Bullington, the former No. 1 overall pick acquired last month on waivers from Pittsburgh. He allowed six runs on 10 hits in five innings to fall to 0-2 in his seven Buffalo outings and 5-8 overall.
Bullington has allowed nine earned runs in his last 11 innings after allowing just one in his previous 11.
“Mechanics-wise, I’ve tried to drop down a little to find a better arm slot and it worked for a couple outings,” he said. “But now my command hasn’t been what it was since then and I’m just trying to find that consistency again.”
“He seems to have one bad inning every outing where he doesn’t pitch well and it seems to magnify from there,” Lovullo said. “When he’s rolling and things are going well, he’s outstanding. We’re just looking for the consistency, looking for a guy to go out there and get the job done, expect bumps in the road and not let them affect him.
“He needs to collect himself at those moments and say, ‘That’s it. It’s not going to go any further.’ ”
Buffalo pitchers need to do that because the offense has been so spotty in most games.
The Herd’s only hit in the final five innings was Brad Snyder’s towering solo home run that soared over the right-field party deck with one out in the seventh.
Buffalo’s other runs came home on catcher Yamid Haad’s two-run homer in the second, his first of the season in his 100th at-bat with the Bisons. It was Haad’s first home run since a blast at Pawtucket’s McCoy Stadium on Aug. 2, 2007.
So after scoring 14 runs Friday night against Rochester, the Bisons have managed just four runs on nine hits over the last two games since while batting just .155.
“We can’t explain it. We don’t know what happens,” Lovullo said of the offense, which has a .250 batting average that would break the franchise record for futility if the season ended today. “It just goes dormant in certain situations.”
