By Laura Soukkavong –
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Worcester Red Sox spent most of their week at Sahlen Field playing like a team that had rediscovered how to control baseball games. They received dominant starting pitching, produced runs early, hit for power, rallied when they fell behind and, by Saturday night, had constructed their fourth five-game winning streak of the season.
Then came Sunday afternoon. Worcester carried a 7-1 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning with a chance to finish a sweep, only to watch Buffalo send 11 hitters to the plate, score seven times and turn what appeared headed toward another WooSox victory into an 8-7 loss.
That inning denied Worcester the sweep, but it did not erase what came before it. The WooSox won four of the five games played in Buffalo, improved to 70-62 overall and left Sahlen Field 4-1 through the first five games of their 11-game road trip.
The series began Tuesday with Gage Ziehl setting the tone. Worcester won 9-1 behind 6.2 innings of one-run baseball from Ziehl and a four-hit performance from Mikey Romero, giving the WooSox consecutive victories for the first time since August 12 and 13, also against Buffalo.
Worcester immediately established an offensive pattern that would continue throughout the series. The WooSox scored in the first inning Tuesday and eventually scored in the opening inning of every game played in Buffalo.
On Tuesday, Worcester loaded the bases with nobody out against Josh Stephan before Braiden Ward scored when Romy Gonzalez grounded into a double play. Buffalo answered in the bottom half when Yohendrick Piñango singled home Rhylan Thomas, but that was the last run Ziehl surrendered.
The game began separating in the third inning. Ward walked, Franklin Arias reached when Buffalo shortstop Jay Harry committed a fielding error, and Romero doubled both runners home for a 3-1 advantage.
Ziehl made that lead stand while Worcester waited to break the game open. After allowing Buffalo’s first-inning run, he permitted only two hits and three baserunners over his final 5.2 innings and retired the last 10 hitters he faced.
The 6.2 innings represented a WooSox season high. Ziehl allowed four hits, struck out four and earned his second Triple-A victory, providing Worcester with precisely the kind of extended start that can dictate an entire series opener.
The offense eventually rewarded him emphatically. With two outs and nobody aboard in the seventh, Arias and Romero singled before Gonzalez launched a three-run home run to right-center field, stretching Worcester’s lead to 6-1.
Three more runs followed in the ninth. Arias walked, Romero collected another hit and Gonzalez singled to load the bases before Anthony Seigler delivered a two-run ground-rule double. Kristian Campbell’s sacrifice fly completed the scoring.
Romero’s four-hit night was part of a broader theme that followed Worcester throughout its stay in Buffalo. The WooSox repeatedly received production from multiple places in the lineup rather than waiting for one hitter to carry the offense.
After Thursday’s game was suspended with the score tied 3-3 entering the 10th inning, Worcester returned Friday needing only one inning to settle it. Seigler began the frame at second base, Campbell walked and, after a flyout, Vinny Capra hit a three-run home run to left field.
Buffalo scored an unearned run in the bottom half on Carlos Mendoza’s two-out RBI single, but Seth Martinez induced CJ Stubbs to ground out to end the 6-4 Worcester victory. Hobie Harris earned the win, and Martinez recorded his second save.
The regularly scheduled Friday game then showed another side of Worcester’s week. Instead of needing extra innings, the WooSox overwhelmed Buffalo, 10-0.
Once again, Worcester scored immediately. Franklin Arias eventually reached third in the opening inning before Nate Eaton’s sacrifice fly brought him home for a 1-0 advantage.
An Anthony Seigler RBI groundout made it 2-0 in the third, and Worcester tore the game open one inning later. Allan Castro and Vinny Capra singled before Nathan Hickey launched a three-run home run to right field.
After Tsung-Che Cheng singled, Braiden Ward followed with a two-run homer to right-center. Five runs had crossed in the inning, and a relatively close game had suddenly become 7-0.
Worcester continued adding runs instead of allowing Buffalo any path back. Tomás Nido delivered an RBI single in the seventh, another run scored on an error, and Arias added an RBI double in the ninth to complete the 10-run performance.
John Holobetz made all of it look excessive. He worked six scoreless innings, surrendering only three singles while walking three and striking out four.
Tyler Samaniego, Patrick Halligan and Osvaldo Berrios handled the final three innings and allowed only two baserunners between them. Worcester had its sixth shutout of the season and, with the two Friday victories, manager Iggy Suarez reached 500 wins across his eight-plus seasons managing in the Red Sox organization.
By Saturday, Worcester had established control of the series, but Buffalo finally made the WooSox chase a game. That produced perhaps the most revealing victory of the week.
The WooSox again scored in the first inning. Nate Eaton singled, Anthony Seigler walked and Romy Gonzalez drove an RBI double into right-center for a 1-0 lead.
It was Worcester’s fourth consecutive game scoring in the opening inning. The WooSox had accumulated 109 first-inning runs for the season, the third-highest total in the International League.
Buffalo finally pushed back. Nick Goodwin tied the game with a leadoff home run in the fourth, then doubled in the sixth before Lenyn Sosa’s RBI single gave the Bisons their first lead of the series.
For the first time all week, Worcester had to respond from behind late in a game. The WooSox did exactly that in the eighth.
Seigler tripled with one out and Gonzalez brought him home with a sacrifice fly to tie the score. Mikey Romero followed with a single, bringing Campbell to the plate.
Campbell attacked a 1-0 slider and sent it over the right-field wall for a two-run home run. In three hitters, Worcester had transformed a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 lead.
Campbell’s production has become increasingly important. In 43 games since July 1, he is hitting .314 with six home runs and 28 runs batted in.
Devin Sweet worked a perfect eighth before Sam McWilliams pitched around a two-out single in the ninth to earn his first save with Worcester. Michael Sansone had given the WooSox five innings of one-run, two-hit baseball in his 11th Triple-A appearance.
The 4-2 victory gave Worcester five consecutive wins for the fourth time this season. More importantly, it showed the WooSox could win a different kind of game than the ones that had preceded it.
Tuesday had been a blowout built around Ziehl. Friday’s regularly scheduled game had combined a 10-run offense with a shutout. Saturday required Worcester to trail late, recover and protect a narrow advantage.
That left Sunday and an opportunity to complete the sweep.
For six innings, Worcester appeared determined to finish the job. The WooSox scored in the first inning for the fifth consecutive game, with Arias singling and Seigler walking before consecutive RBI singles from Gonzalez and Campbell produced a 2-0 lead.
Jay Harry’s solo home run cut the margin to one, but Worcester immediately answered with three runs in the second. Nathan Hickey doubled, Ward and Arias followed with consecutive doubles, and Seigler’s sacrifice fly pushed the lead to 5-1.
Gonzalez added a two-out RBI single in the fourth, and Campbell followed with an RBI double. Worcester had seven runs, Buffalo had one, and the WooSox were nine defensive outs from completing the sweep.
Then came the seventh inning, and everything Worcester had controlled all afternoon disappeared.
Ismael Munguia singled against Angel Bastardo, and Lenyn Sosa followed with a two-run home run. The 7-1 advantage was suddenly 7-3.
CJ Stubbs walked after a groundout, and consecutive singles from Rhylan Thomas and Jay Harry loaded the bases. Tyler Samaniego entered and got Yohendrick Piñango to pop out, moving Worcester within one out of escaping the inning while still holding a four-run advantage.
The escape never came. Nick Goodwin singled home two runs, reducing the lead to 7-5, and a walk to Davis Schneider loaded the bases again.
Munguia, who had started the inning with a single, came to the plate for the second time. His three-run double to right-center cleared the bases and gave Buffalo an 8-7 lead.
Eleven hitters had come to the plate. Seven runs had scored, and a six-run Worcester advantage had become a one-run deficit in a single half-inning.
The WooSox had opportunities afterward, but not another run. Arias singled with one out in the eighth, and Vinny Capra walked with two outs in the ninth, but Chad Dallas and Brendan Cellucci kept Worcester scoreless.
Samaniego took the loss after allowing two runs on three hits while recording two outs. Daniel Guerra earned the victory with a scoreless seventh, and Cellucci recorded his first save of the season.
It was a painful way for Worcester’s five-game winning streak to end because the WooSox had done so much correctly before the seventh. They had scored seven runs in four innings and had once again jumped on Buffalo before the Bisons could establish control.
The defeat also highlighted the unforgiving nature of bullpen innings. Worcester had spent most of the week turning early leads into victories, but on Sunday one extended Buffalo rally was enough to undo six innings of work.
Still, the series as a whole told a much better story than its final inning. Worcester won four games, received strong starting pitching from Gage Ziehl, John Holobetz and Michael Sansone, produced multiple big innings and repeatedly scored before Buffalo could settle into the game.
The offense showed both power and depth. Mikey Romero opened the series with four hits. Romy Gonzalez repeatedly drove in runs. Kristian Campbell delivered Saturday’s decisive home run. Franklin Arias consistently found himself in the middle of scoring opportunities, while Nathan Hickey, Braiden Ward and Vinny Capra supplied home runs during Friday’s victories.
Perhaps the clearest measure of Worcester’s offensive approach was what happened in the first inning. The WooSox scored in the opening frame in all five games, forcing Buffalo to play from behind almost every day.
That matters because early offense changes how a game can be managed. A starter can attack hitters with a lead, the opposing pitcher has less room for mistakes, and every subsequent scoring opportunity carries the possibility of creating separation.
Worcester did that repeatedly in Buffalo. On Tuesday and Friday, the separation became enormous. On Saturday, when Buffalo finally took a lead, the WooSox showed they could erase it.
Sunday provided the warning that accompanies all of those encouraging signs. No lead is protected merely because six innings have been completed, and a bullpen unable to stop an inning from expanding can lose in minutes what an offense spent hours constructing.
The WooSox therefore leave Buffalo with two realities. They won four of five and reached 70 victories, but the one game they lost was sitting in their hands with a 7-1 lead in the seventh inning.
What matters now is which part of the week travels with them to Pennsylvania.
Worcester continues its 11-game road trip Tuesday night in Allentown against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, with first pitch scheduled for 6:45 p.m. at Coca-Cola Park. The WooSox arrive having won four of their first five games on the trip and having shown, for most of a week in Buffalo, exactly how dangerous they can be.
The sweep disappeared in one brutal inning. The larger accomplishment did not: Worcester went into Buffalo, controlled four games, won them all and left with a 4-1 start to its longest remaining road stretch.
For five games, the WooSox kept striking first. For four of them, they also struck last where it mattered most — on the scoreboard.
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