Bisons infielder Mike Hessman hit his fourth home run of the season yesterday – the #315 of his minor league career.

Hessman has 4 home runs in the last 6 games, widening his lead as the Minor League’s active HR Leader.

WATCH BisonsTV: Hessman’s HR Thursday. (MiLB HR leaderboard below)

Daisuke Matsuzaka was the star attraction on Thursday afternoon in downtown Buffalo, but Fernando Martinez and the comeback Bisons stole the spotlight.

Martinez gave the Bisons their first walk-off victory of the season when he drove home Alex Cintron in the bottom of the 10th inning of a 3-2 win over the Pawtucket Red Sox.

UPDATE: Manager Ken Oberkfell’s post-game comments:

Leading off the home 10th, Cintron hit the first pitch up the middle for a single. Ruben Tejada laid down the sacrifice and Josh Thole drew the two-out walk to keep the inning alive. Fernando Martinez then drove a sharp grounder off the glove of PawSox first baseman Jorge Jimenez. The ball trickled into right field while Cintron raced home with the game-winning run.

Full Game Report: CLICK HERE!

Buffalo, trailing 2-0, got a leadoff single by Ike Davis in the seventh inning set the stage for the right-handed slugger Mike Hessman. Behind in the count 1-2, Hessman smacked a two-run bomb to right-center field off reliever Dustin Richardson for his International League leading fourth home run of the year, tying the game. Mike Hessman now has 315 career minor league home runs.

Fridaynightbash! Get downtown

You can’t draw up a Home Opener much better than what played out at Coca-Cola Field for Home Game #1 of the 2010 season.

Great pitching, check! Clutch hitting, check! Throw in great weather and a great crowd and it was a perfect start to the baseball season in Downtown Buffalo.

UPDATE: Sights and Sounds from Buffalo’s home opener:

R.A. Dickey tossed a complete game and Chris Carter drove in four as the Bisons defeated the Pawtucket Red Sox, 8-2, on a gorgeous Wednesday afternoon in front of 13,323 Opening Day fans.

FULL GAME REPORE: CLICK HERE!

Carter finished the game a home run away from the cycle, with four hits, two doubles and a triple. He drove in four, scored three times and proved to be too much for his former teammates to handle.

The Bisons are now 3-1 against Pawtucket in home openers and 4-0 when their Home Opener falls on April 14. The first ever game at Coca-Cola Field was played on April 14, 1988 – a 1-0 win over Denver.

The Chiefs completed a two-game sweep of the Herd at Alliance Bank Stadium with a 4-3 victory on Tuesday night. Syracuse’s Chase Lambin had four hits and three RBI to lead the Thruway rival to victory.

The Bisons will now head home for the 2010 Home Opener, Wednesday at 3:05 p.m. against Pawtucket.

FULL GAME REPORT: CLICK HERE!

The head-to-head matchup has been all Syracuse of late as they have now won 14 of the last 18 games against Buffalo. The Chiefs won the first eight contests of the 2009 season, a year after winning the first five games in 2008.

Lambin was the thorn in the Bisons side, even after the Herd took an early 2-0 lead on Mike Hessman’s third home run of the season and a sacrifice fly from Ruben Tejada. Lambin’s RBI-single in the bottom of the second inning scored Chris Duncan for the Chiefs’ first run.

Two innings later, Lambin doubled home another run, tying the score at three. In the sixth inning, Lambin’s third hit on the night drove in Duncan again and gave Syracuse their first, and only, lead of the game.

Tobi Stoner (0-1) suffered the defeat for the Herd, allowing four runs on seven hits in five innings of work. He struck out just one batter.

Ike Davis singled, but went just 1-4 at the plate. It’s the first game in 2010 the Bisons’ first baseman has not reached base twice. Fernando Martinez finished the game 2-4 with his second double of the season. Mike Hessman now has 314 career minor league home runs. He has 22 more home runs than any other active player.

The Bisons’ three-game winning streak came to an end in Syracuse on Monday night as the Chiefs collected a 9-1 victory over the Herd. Buffalo is now 3-2 with one game to go on their season-opening six-game roadtrip.

Errors and strikeouts were the culprits in the Bisons’ second loss of the season. Herd batters fanned a season-high 13 times, making it virtually impossible for the team to string together a rally.

The Bisons’ lone run came in the second inning as Ike Davis led off the frame with his second home run of the season. Davis also singled in the game and has now reached base at least twice in each of the team’s first five games.

The Bisons have five home runs in five games this year after having just 80 in 143 games last season.

Syracuse, meanwhile, put together the big inning with a six-run fifth inning that knocked starter Bobby Livingston (0-1) from the game. All six of the runs were unearned and came with only two hits in the inning.

Already leading 3-1, Chiefs’ outfielder Marvin Lowrance led off the frame with a grounder that got under Ike Davis’s glove at first. Livingston then hit a batter and walked the bases loaded before two runs scored on an error from third baseman Mike Hessman. Pete Orr’s RBI-single made it 6-1 Syracuse and forced manager Ken Oberkfell to go to his bullpen.

The Bisons turned to Kiko Calero, but Syracuse’s Chase Lambin turned on Calero’s first offering for a three-run home run to right field. When the sixth inning was over, the Chiefs had scored six runs on two hits, a walk, a hit batter and two Buffalo errors.