By Mike Harrington
While you have spent your day working, the Buffalo Bisons have been doing likewise and working over their record books during an incredible romp past the Syracuse Chiefs.
The Herd set modern-era records in both runs and hits with a 27-9 demolition of Syracuse at NBT Bank Stadium. The win completed a four-game sweep on the road, Buffalo's first since 2004, and improved its record to 8-4.
For posterity, there's the lineup card at left as posted on Bisons.com (manager Marty Brown has some high-quality printing!)
Here's the rundown of the team's accomplishments today, as it smashed, equaled or approached several records in its modern era dating to 1985:
---Most runs, breaking the mark of 25 set in a 25-13 win at Rochester in 2004).
---Most hits (29), breaking the mark of 26 set in a 15-9, 10-inning win in Indianapolis in 1985.
---Most runs in an inning (10 in the 7th), tying the mark set in the third inning of a 14-0 win over Richmond on May 6, 2001.
---Most hits by a player: 6, by OF Moises Sierra, tying the mark set by Justin Turner at Rochester in the season finale on Sept. 4, 2010. Prior to that game, no Buffalo batter had collected six hits since 1936!
---St. Francis product Jim Negrych went 4 for 7 and hit for the cycle, the first Bison player to do that since Turner. Negrych leads all of affiliated baseball with an XBox-like .515 batting average. Oddly enough, no Bison has ever hit for the cycle at home in a regular season game (Alex Ramirez did it during the 1998 playoffs), but there have been five on the road.
Most runs by a player (5), by Ryan Langerhans and Sierra, equaling the mark set by Brent Abernathy in 2004. Langerhans had two homers and six RBIs.
---Luis Jimenez had 8 RBIs, falling one shy of the mark set by Dusty Wathan during his three-homer game vs. Toledo in 2005 at Coca-Cola Field. Jimenez's eight are the most ever by a Buffalo player in a road game.
---This from the Bisons: "The International League reports that the 27 runs on 29 hits are both records in the circuit over the last 40 years. The Bisons' greatest win in 128 years of the team was a 33-6 win over Providence on July 26, 1902."
---The 36 combined runs are two shy of the modern-era mark, set in the 25-13 game.
---The Bisons hit a ridiculous 14 of 24 with runners in scoring position and are batting .333 as a team for the season. They have scored 85 runs in 12 games, an average of 7.1 per contest.
The linescore looked like this:
BUF 500 503 (10)-0-4 27-29-0
SYR 031 122 0 -0-0 9-14 -2
The Bisons hit the bus right after the game for Lehigh Valley and start a four-gamer with the IronPigs on Friday night. The next home game is Tuesday at 6 against Pawtucket.