Reyes' ninth-inning homer lifts IronPigs past Bisons, 7-6

Felix Reyes turned a near-loss into a 7-6 win with one swing, launching a two-run homer in the ninth inning after the Lehigh Valley IronPigs had been down to their final strike at Sahlen Field. The blast, delivered with two outs on a full count, capped a rally that pushed the IronPigs past the Buffalo Bisons on Wednesday and gave Lehigh Valley a second straight ninth-inning comeback in the series.

Reyes did not stop there. He also connected for a solo homer earlier in the game, giving him his third multi-homer performance of the season and making him the clear difference in a game that never felt settled. Lehigh Valley trailed 5-3 before the ninth and had to chip away against a Buffalo club that kept answering with power of its own. William Simoneit and Riley Tirotta each hit two-run homers for the Bisons, while Davis Schneider, newly optioned by the Toronto Blue Jays, added an RBI double and drew three walks in his first game with Buffalo this season.

The IronPigs built the comeback one run at a time. Liover Peguero drove in a run with a sacrifice fly, another Peguero RBI came on a double-play grounder, and Robert Moore lined an RBI double in the ninth to keep the inning alive before Reyes finished it. Matt Bowman took the loss for Buffalo after allowing all three runs in the ninth, while Michael Mercado earned the win with two scoreless innings in relief. Lou Trivino closed it out and finished off a game that Lehigh Valley seemed ready to lose until Reyes changed the ending.

That kind of finish carried real weight in a series defined by thin margins. Buffalo had walked off Lehigh Valley 5-4 in 10 innings on Tuesday night, and the IronPigs answered less than a day later with their own dramatic escape. Lehigh Valley’s game note said the club had played six consecutive one-run games and gone 3-3 in that stretch, a reminder that Triple-A often turns on one pitch, one swing, or one defensive play. After two straight nail-biters at Sahlen Field, the series had become less about ordinary midweek baseball and more about which club could stay composed when the game was on the line.