BISONS:
Justin Turner, 2B
Luis Hernandez, SS
Jorege Padilla, CF
Mike Jacobs, 1B
Fernando Martinez, RF
Mike Cervenak, 3B
Lucas Duda, LF
Russ Adams, DH
JR House, C
Dillon Gee, RHP

YANKEES:
Reid Gorecki, CF
Reegie Corona, 2B
Eduardo Nunez, SS
Juan Miranda, DH
Jesus Montero, C
Jorge Vazquez, 1B
Chad Huffman, LF
Eric Bruntlett, 3B
Greg Golson, RF
Tim Redding, RHP

The Buffalo Bisons today announced that New York Mets’ LHP OLIVER PEREZ has joined the team on a major league rehabilitation assignment. Perez is scheduled to start for the Bisons on Sunday, July 11 in Rochester against the Red Wings (1:05 p.m.).

The Mets placed Perez on the disabled list on June 5 with patella tendinitis in his right knee. He’s made two rehab starts with Single-A St. Lucie of the Florida State League and was 1-1 with a 4.63ERA (11.2IP, 7H, 6R, 6ER, 4BB, 14K). He struck out seven batters in each start.

Prior to the injury, Perez was 0-3 with a 6.28ERA in 11 games and seven starts with the Mets (38.2IP, 43H, 29R, 27ER, 33BB, 30K).

Perez pitched in two games for the Bisons during the 2009 season. He was 0-2 with a 3.86ERA in those two appearances (9.1IP, 8H, 4R, 4ER, 9BB, 9K).

Starting pitcher Ramon Ortiz was in cruise control for the first five innings of his start against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees. Unfortunately he hit a speed bump in the sixth inning and saw his quality start unravel when the Bisons lost 10-7 at Coca-Cola Field tonight.

The Bisons started off the game at the plate swinging for the fences. Second baseman Justin Turner led off the game with his third home run of the season and became the first Bison since Jason Pridie did it back on April 18th to hit a leadoff home run. First baseman Mike Jacobs followed Turner’s suit by also hitting a home run in the first when he swatted his 14th home run of the season to deep right field.

Jacobs has found his home run swing as of late as he has been hitting the cover off the ball in the past few games. Over the last five games Jacobs is hitting .315 with seven RBI and five home runs.

On the mound for the Herd Ortiz started tonight’s game in dominant fashion, allowing only one hit in the first five innings. That hit came way of an Eric Bruntlett home run in the third inning to make the score 3-1 in favor of the Herd.

Ortiz then ran into some trouble in the sixth inning. Ortiz allowed five men on base in the inning and saw the Yankees push five runs across in the frame while they batted around the order in the sixth. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre would not look back and added four runs over the final three innings to secure the victory.

The Bisons made a strong push in the ninth inning to make the comeback, scoring three runs along with three hits in the frame, but the Yankees had built up an insurmountable lead and ultimately won 10-7.

The Herd collected 15 hits as a team, falling well short of their high for the season set at 22 in a game against Norfolk last month but despite the loss the Bisons seem to have found their offensive form again.

After going through the month of June suffering the loss of slugger Mike Hessman and losing Jesus Feliciano and Josh Thole to the Mets the offense of the Herd suffered. The Herd struggled in June going 12-17 during the month while they had a 29-22 record before going into June. The losses of those key three players took a while to adjust but it seems the offense of the Herd is back. The Bisons are currently 4-4 this month and have scored 12 and ten runs in two separate games and collected 15 hits tonight to get their offense rolling heading into the All-Star break. Coming into today’s game the Herd was tied for first in the International League in home runs while they were second in batting average and third in runs.

The loss leaves the Herd with a 45-43 record while the Yankees improve to 52-36 and have a seven game lead on Buffalo for the IL North.

BISONS NOTES: Center fielder Jorge Padilla went 3-5 today and extended his hitting streak to 12 to tie Jesus Feliciano for the longest streak by a Bison this season. Padilla will try to break Feliciano’s stretch tomorrow when the Bisons finish up a short two-game series with the Yankees. The Bisons will send Dillon Gee (8-5, 4.82 ERA) to the mound to take on Tim Redding (3-4, 3.70 ERA).

BISONS:
Justin Turner, 2B
Luis Hernandez, SS
Jorege Padilla, CF
Mike Jacobs, 1B
Fernando Martinez, RF
Mike Cervenak, 3B
Lucas Duda, LF
Russ Adams, DH
JR House, C
Ramon Ortiz, RHP

YANKEES:
Justin Christian, LF
Reegie Corona, 2B
Eduardo Nunez, SS
Juan Miranda, DH
Jesus Montero, C
Jorge Vazquez, 1B
Chad Huffman, RF
Eric Bruntlett, 3B
Greg Golson, CF
Zach McAllister, RHP

The Bisons have a two-game series against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre at home on Thursday and Friday for their final home games before the All-Star break.

Probable starting pitchers for Buffalo and Scranton/WB:
7/8 RHP Ramon Ortiz (0-1, 8.10) vs. RHP Zach McAllister (7-5, 4.25)
7/9 RHP Dillon Gee (8-5, 4.82) vs. RHP Tim Redding (3-4, 3.70)

vs. THE YANKS: The Bisons are 5-3 against the Yankees so far in 2010. The Herd began the season series by taking three of four from the Yanks in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, April 8-11 to open the year. The Yanks came to Buffalo April 17-20 and split a four-game set at Coca-Cola Field. Dating back to last season, the Bisons have won eight of their last 12 matchups with the Yankees.

ONE MORE FOR THE FRANCHSIE MARK: Jonathan Albaladejo picked up the save on Saturday night with a scoreless ninth inning preserving the Yankees 5-3 lead and helping the team move back in front of the Chiefs for first place in the IL North. With the 1.1 scoreless innings turned in at PNC Field, Albaladejo moved past Chuck Ricci and now tops the list of SWB closers with 26 saves in a single setting the franchise record. Ricci picked up his 25 saves in 1995. Next on the list for Albaladejo is the 39 career saves of Jay Baller who tops the franchise list in that category. Albaladejo had 11 saves for the Yankees in 2009 and current has 38 in his Scranton/Wilkes-Barre career. The Yankees right hander is also within striking distance of the IL single season record of 38 held by Matt Whiteside of the ’04 Richmond Braves.

BAD IN JUNE, BETTER IN JULY: The Yankees were flat out bad on the road in the month of June dropping 10 out of 14 games including losing three of four games in series at Charlotte, Lehigh Valley and Pawtucket. The fortunes in July seem to be much better for the club who has already passed the number of wins in the month of June. The Yankees are 5-1 on the road in July having split the final two games of the series against the PawSox and swept through Rochester to open up the clubs current six game trip.

RUN PRODUCTION: With Wednesday’s 7-2 win over the Red Wings, the Yankees got the run differential for the season on their side. SWB has now scored more rusn (359) than allowed (357) during the year. The Yankees have not been on the positive side of the run differential since a 1-0 win on opening night over Buffalo on April 8th.

MULTIPLE LONG BALLS: Jorge Vazquez has homered in three straight games for the Yankees, raising his season total to six and placing him one shy of the SWB franchise record for home runs in consecutive games. Tom Marsh was the first SWB player to homer in four consecutive games from May 2nd – 5th in 1993 and Tomas Perez who homered in four straight from May 24th – 27th during the 2000 season.

JORGE KEEPS GOING AND GOING: Jorge Vazquez had his 12 game hit streak stopped in the final game of the four game series at Pawtucket on July 2nd but the infielder has kept on hitting. With his a hit Wednesday, Vazquez has now hit safely in 17 of his last 18 games. He had four straight two hit games and finished with 10 RBI’s in the series with Rochester. During his 18 game run Vazquez is hitting .338 (25-74) with 7R, 8 2B, 5HR and 18 RBI. The slugger has raised his average from .182 to .301 over the last 18 games.

DOUBLING UP ON THE YARD WORK: Juan Miranda and Jorge Vazquez each hit solo homers for the Yankees in the fourth inning of SWB’s 10-1 opening game win over Rochester on Sunday night. It was the first time all season the Yankees have hit multiple homers in the same inning. Miranda led off the Yankees fourth with his eighth of the season into the Rochester bullpen and two batters later Vazquez delivered his fourth over the wall in centerfield. The 2009 Yankees hit two homers in the same inning four times in 2009. The ’08 IL champs hit three homers in the same inning and hit back-to-back homers on five other occasions.

BLOWING THROUGH ROCHESTER: Jorge Vazquez may not have hit a homerun Wednesday, but the slugging infielder still came up with the big hit in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees’ 7-2 victory over the Rochester Red Wings. With the Yankees leading 3-1 in the fifth inning, Vazquez hit a two-strike, bases-clearing double to center field. Vazquez, who had homered in his previous three games, has settled into the middle of the Yankees’ lineup, going 9-for-21 over his last five games and driving in 10 runs over that span. Before Vazquez’s double the Yankees had taken a 3-1 lead on the strength of poor defense by the Red Wings in the second inning. Juan Miranda started the inning by sending his 10th homerun of the year -and fourth in his last six games-over the wall in right field. With two outs in the inning, Chad Huffman doubled to right and scored when Eric Bruntlett reached on a throwing error by Red Wings third baseman Matt Macri. Bruntlett then scored when Macri couldn’t field a ball hit by Justin Christian, picking up another error and allowing the Yankees’ third run to score. David Phelps started the game for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and picked up his first Triple-A win, going six innings of one-run ball. The young righty allowed four hits and struck out five in the outing. Through two starts with the team, Phelps has yet to walk a batter.

Looking back at the Bisons & Yankess season-series:

4/20/10: BUF 11, SWB 7 – Pridie, Bisons out-slug Yanks

4/19/10: SWB 7, BUF 2 – Dickey strong, Herd falls

4/18/10: SWB 4, BUF 3 (10) – Scranton/WB snaps Herd’s streak

4/17/10: BUF 2, SWB 0 – Gee: 7 shutout, Ks 8 in victory

4/11/10: BUF 4, SWB 1 – Gee leads Bisons to series win

4/10/10: BUF 2, SWB 1 (11) – Hessman, Carter blasts give Buffalo win

4/9/10: BUF 7, SWB 6 – Bisons rally back

4/8/10: SWB 1, BUF 0 – Bisons drop opener, Davis 3-4

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