Tobi Stoner put an end to a pair of losing streaks with an impressive showing on Saturday night from Victory Field.
The Bisons' righty fanned eight batters in six solid innings to lead the Herd to a 4-3 win over the Indianapolis Indians. In doing so, Stoner snapped a personal five-game losing streak and helped Buffalo pick up their first win since Tuesday.
Stoner, who led the Bisons with seven wins during the 2009 campaign, started this season 0-4 in five starts. In between those efforts, he also fell in defeat during a one-game promotion to the New York Mets. The 25-year old rebounded nicely on Saturday by allowing just one run on four hits and four walks. Indy threatened for most of the game, but Stoner and two Herd relievers forced the Indians to strand 11 base runners and hit just 3-14 with runners in scoring position.
Stoner got Brandon Jones to ground out with two on and two out in the first inning. After walking the first two batters in the second, Stoner struck out Doug Bernier, Michael Crotta and Jose Tebata in succession to end another threat. He struck out two more in the fifth to help the Bisons build a 4-1 lead.
The eight strikeouts by Stoner tie a Bisons' season high. Dillon Gee also fanned eight on April 17 against the Yankees.
The Indians almost rallied against the Bisons bullpen. The I-Tribe scored two run in the seventh inning and came very close to tying the score in the eighth. Jose Tabata singled with a runner on second base and two outs, but Herd right fielder Jesus Feliciano threw out Luke Carlin trying to score on the play.
Buffalo closer Elmer Dessens stopped the Indians from threatening any more. He struck out two batters in the ninth to earn his fourth save of the season.
The Bisons scored two in the second and two more in the fourth inning to build a 4-0 lead. Josh Thole and Ruben Tejada produced back-to-back RBI-hits with two outs in the second to get the Herd on the board.
Mike Hessman added to his league-leading RBI total with a run-scoring double in the fourth. The slugger now has 33RBI on the season. Two batters later, Hessman scored on Russ Adams' RBI-single. After an intentional walk to Ruben Tejada in with two outs in the fourth inning, Indianapolis pitchers retired the final 16 Bisons hitters they faced.
BISONS NOTES:Indianapolis is a perfect 7-7 stealing bases against the Herd in this series...Chris Carter singled in four trips to extend his hit streak to nine games...The 13 combined strikeouts from Tobi Stoner (8), John Lujan (3) and Elmer Dessens (2) set a one-game season-high for the Bisons...Josh Thole doubled for the second consecutive game and is only one double behind Mike Hessman for the team lead.
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