Bieber's rehab start not enough as Bisons fall to Worcester 7-3

Shane Bieber’s line was less about the loss than the test he passed inside it: 2.2 innings, 59 pitches, 40 strikes, three strikeouts and no walks in his first rehab start for Buffalo. For a right-hander working back from elbow inflammation, the outing gave the Blue Jays and Bisons a cleaner read on workload and command, even if the result ended up in Worcester’s column.

Bieber, the 2020 American League Cy Young Award winner, allowed six hits and three runs over the start at Polar Park, where 7,277 were on hand and the game lasted 2:40. The official box score listed the outing as 2.2 innings with three earned runs, a line that showed enough sharpness to miss bats but also enough traffic to keep Buffalo from fully stabilizing the game.

Worcester set the tone early. Matt Thaiss and Vinny Capra each delivered RBI doubles in the first inning for a 2-0 lead, then Tyler McDonough added a solo home run in the second to make it 3-0. Buffalo answered with a run in the fourth on Jonatan Clase’s RBI double, then Davis Schneider singled home another in the fifth. Josh Rivera kept the comeback alive in the sixth with a sacrifice fly that tied it at 3-3.

The tie did not last. Worcester broke the game open with a four-run sixth inning, then got RBI hits from Allan Castro and Braiden Ward to finish off the Bisons’ rally and send Buffalo home with the 7-3 defeat. Buffalo finished with nine hits, the same as Worcester, and did not commit an error, but the WooSox were better when the game turned to leverage.

The outing fit a bigger week for Worcester against rehabbing Blue Jays arms. Across appearances against Dylan Cease, Max Scherzer and Bieber, the WooSox had scored 12 runs in 12.2 innings against the trio. That run included a fourth straight win and five victories in six tries against Buffalo by the time the teams wrapped up their series at Polar Park.

Bieber’s next step was already lined up. MLB’s injury update on June 10 said he was scheduled for another Triple-A Buffalo rehab start on June 11, with a return to Toronto possible soon after. For the Blue Jays, that makes the 59-pitch outing more meaningful than the score line: it was another checkpoint on the road back to the majors.