The Buffalo Bisons head into the holiday weekend in the midst of an 8-game homestand. Following the series with Toledo, Thruway Cup Series rivals lock up in a 4-game set at Coca-Cola Field when Syracuse visits. Buffalo travels to face IL Southern Division opponents, starting June 4 against the Tides prior to battling Durham to wrap the roadtrip. Below are a few notables on each club.

SYRACUSE CHIEFS (May 31 – June 3)
YANKEES TO FACE STRASBURG: Scranton/Wilkes-Barre faced the minors’ top left-handed pitching prospect earlier in the season at PNC Field when they squared off against Louisville’s Aroldis Chapman on April 28th. Saturday night in Syracuse, the Yankees will face the top right-handed pitching prospect and top pitching prospect overall in Steven Strasburg in the opening game of a two-game series at Alliance Bank Stadium.

TWO TIMERS: After their second scheduled off day of the season, the Chiefs will take on the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees for a pair of seven-inning games tonight. Syracuse and SWB were rained out on April 23. It’s the second doubleheader of the season for the Chiefs, but the first pair of seven-inning games. The Chiefs swept a split doubleheader at Rochester on May 19.

THREE FOR ALL: With Carlos Maldonado’s ascent to the big leagues, Jamie Burke started his first game with the Chiefs Tuesday night. At this point, at least three players have started at each fielding position for Syracuse.

EARLY DECISION: As play begins today, the Chiefs lead SWB by a half game and Buffalo by a game for the lead in the North Division. Syracuse plays nine straight games starting this evening against the Yankees and Bisons. After that stretch, the Chiefs step outside the division for 22 straight games against interdivision competition.

NORFOLK TIDES (at Norfolk, V.A., June 4-7)
MAKING THEIR PITCH: Starting pitchers Chris Tillman and Jake Arrieta have been outstanding through the first two months of the season. The pair are tied for the organizational lead with five wins, while Arrieta leads O’s minor leaguers with 55 strikeouts and a 1.86 ERA and Tillman is second with 47 strikeouts and a 3.12 ERA. Arrieta’s 1.86 ERA leads the IL, and the 24-year-old also ranks among IL leaders in innings pitched (1st, 63.0) and batting average against (.181).

FIGUERING IT OUT QUICKLY: Tides outfielder Danny Figueroa was promoted to Norfolk from Double-A Bowie Tuesday and wasted no time in getting himself acclimated to International League pitching. In his second at-bat, Figueroa clubbed an opposite field two-run homer, his first hit and RBI at the Triple-A level. The home run was all the offense Norfolk needed in their 2-1 win over Rochester. Danny is the twin brother of Paco Figueroa, who is also on Norfolk’s roster. Making the moment all the better was that the home run came against the Rochester Red Wings – top affiliate of the Twins.

HOMECOMING OF SORTS: The Tides travel to Pawtucket Thursday for the start of a four-game series with the Red Sox, and Norfolk’s coaching staff will be quite familiar with the area. Tides manager Gary Allenson won the 1978 International League MVP while playing for Pawtucket in 1978, while pitching coach Mike Griffin served as the PawSox pitching coach from 2003-2007. In addition to the PawSox connection, Norfolk hitting coach Richie Hebner is originally from Boston and served as the Red Sox hitting coach from 1989-1991.

DURHAM BULLS (Durham, N.C., June 8-11)
NO NO-NO: Jeremy Hellickson made a strong bid this week for Durham’s second no-hitter since the Bulls went to Triple-A in 1998. On Monday Hellickson pitched six perfect innings before a leadoff walk in the seventh. He then surrendered a leadoff single to start the eighth to Aaron Bates. It was the only hit Pawtucket got off Hellickson and Winston Abreu in a 1-0 Bulls win. Current Colorado Rockie-Jason Hammel and Juan Salas combined for the only Bulls Triple-A no-hitter against Columbus on July 16, 2006 at the DBAP.

DAN DOING IT: Dan Johnson has been one of the top hitters in the International League over the first six weeks. He is now tied for the IL lead in homers with 14 after three in the last series against Pawtucket. He is in the top three in the IL in homers, RBI, total bases, slugging and on-base percentage. Johnson tied a Bulls Triple-A record in a suspended game against Pawtucket played Saturday and Sunday. He hit two homers and had eight RBI in an 18-1 win. Only Chris Richard, with a pair of grand slams a year ago, had driven in eight runs at the DBAP in a single game. Durham’s overall Triple-A mark occurred when Scott McClain drove in nine runs in a game at Indianapolis in 1998.

SERIES SUCCESS: Before taking three of four against Pawtucket this week, Durham had not won a series in the month of May. Durham swept Charlotte in a four-game series from April 19-22. Durham is 11-12 in the month of May after a 15-8 April. Despite that, the Bulls have a 5.5 game lead over Norfolk and Gwinnett entering action tonight against Rochester.

CLOSE CALL: Durham has outscored the opposition by an unbelievable 75 runs (261-186) over the first 46 games of the season. The reason the Bulls are only six over .500 is that the team has gone 8-10 in games decided by one or two runs. Before a 1-0 win on Monday, Durham had lost eight straight close games, with the last victory coming on April 23, 5-4 over Gwinnett.

During his time in Toledo, third baseman Mike Hessman amassed more home runs than any other player in Mud Hens history. Today, the Bisons slugger hit two more against his former team. Hessman homered twice; including a walk off solo shot in the tenth inning in an 8-7 come from behind win against the Mud Hens.

The Bisons got two home runs from Mike Hessman, including a walk off solo shot in the tenth inning in an 8-7 come from behind win over Toledo.

Hessman started off the game just how he ended it, with a home run. In his first at bat in the second inning he took a 1-1 offering from Mud Hens starting pitcher Ruddy Lugo to center field to cut the Mud Hens lead to 2-1.

The Herd had a productive third inning to get their offense rolling. Trailing 3-1, centerfielder Emmanuel Garcia hit a single with two outs to extend the inning. Garcia was then driven in by the next batter, right fielder Jesus Feliciano. Following Feliciano second baseman Russ Adams hit a two run home run when he took the first pitch of the at bat and sent it over the left field wall to give the Herd a 4-3 lead.

Mud Hens’ Ben Guez started led off the inning with a double and their four run performance was capped off with a home run from left fielder Jeff Frazier. With the Mud Hens four run inning, the Herd found themselves trailing 7-4.

The Bisons would begin to chip away at the three run lead over the next few innings. In the bottom half of the seventh Garcia again had a two out hit after he doubled to again keep the inning alive. Garcia was then again driven home by Feliciano to cut the lead to two.

Toledo was unable to produce any more offense over the remainder of the game and the Bisons took full advantage of it. After first baseman Daniel Murphy lined out, the Herd went to work. Hessman stepped up to the plate and drove a double to left.

Designated hitter Mike Jacobs followed suit and hit another double after Hessman to drive him home and pull the game to within one run. The comeback was then completed when left fielder Mike Cervenak hit the third straight double of the inning for the Herd to drive home Jacobs and tie the game at seven.

After neither team was able to put any runs on the board in the ninth, the game went to extra innings. The Mud Hens quickly went down in order. Relief pitcher Manny Acosta only needed five pitches in the tenth to retire the side.

Leading off the bottom half of the tenth for the Herd was none other than Hessman. After taking the first pitch for a ball, Hessman took the next pitch from Mud Hens reliever Josh Rainwater and hit another bomb to center field to end the game and seal the win for the Herd in walk off fashion, his first walk off home run of his career.

For the day Hessman went 3-5 and hit his league leading 15th and 16th home runs. He also added two RBI to give him 51 for the season, which also leads the league. Other stars for the Herd today were Garcia who went 3-4 with two doubles, Adams with this two RBI coming from his two run home run and Feliciano who also added two RBI.

Acosta picked up his first win of the season after he went two innings and allowed only one hit and Rainwater was charged with the loss. With the come from behind win the Herd are now 28-19 and 17-6 at home.

Right fielder Jesus Feliciano added to his league leading batting average by going 2-5 on the day to bring it up to .366 for the season. In the second inning Feliciano also recorded his sixth outfield assist of the season

The New York Mets have claimed INF JUSTIN TURNER off waivers from the Baltimore Orioles. He has been assigned to the Bisons and activated today by the Herd.

Turner, 25, has spent most of the 2010 season with the Triple-A Norfolk Tides, but did see action in five games with the Orioles from April 12-23 (0-9 at the plate). With the Tides, Turner hit .250 (21-84) with eight doubles, one home run, eight RBI and 11 runs scored in 23 games.

In 2009, Turner hit .300 (116-387) with 28 doubles, two home runs and 43RBI in 108 games for Norfolk. He led all Orioles’ full season minor leaguers in average (.300) and led the Tides in doubles (28), hits (116) and games played (108). He ranked 3rd in the International League in lowest strikeout/plate appearances (11.92) and 10th in average (.300). Turner received a September promotion in 2009 for his major league debut and hit .167 (3-18) with two runs scored in 12 games.

Turner was originally a seventh round draft pick of Cincinnati in 2006 and was traded to Baltimore in a four-player deal in 2009 that sent C Ramon Hernandez to the Reds.

BISONS:
Jesus Feliciano – RF
Russ Adams – 2B
Daniel Murphy – 1B
Mike Hessman – 3B
Mike Jacobs – DH
Mike Cervenak – LF
Josh Thole – C
Ruben Tejada – SS
Emmanuel Garcia – CF
Bobby Livingston – LHP

MUD HENS:
Scott Sizemore – 3B
Maxwell Leon – DH
Carlos Guillen – 2B
Ryan Strieby – 1B
Jeff Frazier – LF
Casper Wells – CF
Brent Dlugach – SS
Max St. Pierre – C
Ben Guez – RF
Ruddy Lugo – RHP

The Herd lost their second straight game against the IronPigs at Coca-Cola Park on Tuesday night by a 2-1 score. The back-to-back losses means that Buffalo could only earn a split of the four-game series against the International League North division rivals.

Buffalo still has not one a series in five tries at Lehigh Valley after the IronPigs debuted in 2008. The Bisons won the first two games of the series over the weekend, but fell 6-3 on Monday night. Tuesday’s loss meant a series victory will have to wait until the Herd returns to Pennsylvania in August.

Buffalo could only muster one run in the Tuesday’s series finale. Mike Hessman’s two-out single in the first inning plated newcomer Daniel Murphy for the game’s first run. For Hessman, the knock gave him his league-leading 49th RBI on the season.

Lehigh Valley answered quickly in the bottom of the first on John Mayberry’s RBI-single. In the fourth, the IronPigs pushed across a second run on Melvin Dorta’s two-out hit into center off Herd starter Pat Misch. That proved to be the game-winner.

Drew Carpenter and two IronPig relievers held the Bisons to just six hits in the loss. Misch suffered his first loss of the season for Buffalo to fall to 4-1. The southpaw allowed just two runs in six innings of work.

In his first action since his month-long stay with the Mets, Manny Acosta threw two shutout innings for Buffalo.

BISONS NOTES: Daniel Murphy’s action was just his second career Triple-A game. Murphy played one game with New Orleans in August, 2008 but was promoted to New York for his major league debut a day later. He finished Tuesday’s game 1-4 with a run scored…Mike Cervenak was 1-4 at the plate and has now hit safely in each of his three games since being activated off the disabled list…Pat Misch picked up his first hit of the season with a fifth-inning single.