Lefty Jon Niese will make an injury rehab start for the Buffalo Bisons in today's 2 p.m. game with the Syracuse Chiefs at Coca-Cola Field.
Niese was placed on the New York Mets' disabled list on May 17 with a right hamstring injury. He was 1-2 with a 4.79 earned run average in eight starts with the Mets.
Today's Herd lineup:
SS -- Ruben Tejada 2B -- Justin Turner 1B -- Daniel Murphy 3B -- Mike Hessman LF -- Mike Cervenak RF -- Russ Adams C -- Josh Thole CF -- Emmanuel Garcia P -- Jon Niese
Stephen Strasburg is coming to Buffalo. The Washington Nationals phenom will pitch against the Bisons Thursday afternoon at 1, going six innings or 95 pitches. Here is our current report.
Nationals GM Mike Rizzo firmed up Strasburg's plan while the big club was in San Diego in reports filed by the Washington Post and by MLB.com.
8 p.m. update: I keep getting emails and I reiterate that Strasburg is pitching THURSDAY. Channel 4 went on air tonight and still has on its Web site Wednesday, which is what the AP erroneously reported out of San Diego earlier today. The AP has since corrected that story. Hopefully, Channel 4 will soon too.
Still no official word from the Washington Nationals about Stephen Strasburg's potential appearance Thursday in Coca-Cola Field against the Bisons. The Syracuse PR staff has instructed the Bisons to list Thursday's starter for the Chiefs as "TBA," which is normal parlance when a team simply does not know who the starter will be.
Strasburg's ERA is now 1.27 in Syracuse and 1.43 in the minors this year. Still pretty impressive. Who took him deep last night, becoming the first hitter this year to do it? How about journeyman catcher Rene Rivera, a backup with the Bisons last season.
Strasburg's 0.39 ERA through his first four starts with the Chiefs rose to 1.27, and his overall ERA in the minors -- 0.99 entering the game -- shot up to 1.43.
The Bisons open a four-game set with Syracuse Monday at 2. They are wrapping up a four-gamer with Toledo today as Dylan Owen is on the mound. The Toledo starter is 28-year-old lefty Ryan Ketchner, who was born in Wellsville but attended high school in Florida.
Here's the Buffalo lineup:
Jesus Feliciano, cf Justin Turner, 2b Daniel Murphy, 1b Mike Hessman, 3b Mike Jacobs, dh Mike Cervenak, lf Russ Adams, rf Josh Thole, c Ruben Tejada, ss --- Dylan Owen, p
What in the world was in the water Saturday? We had sheer craziness around the big leagues. Check it out.
1). The Indians roared back from a pair of six-run deficits to beat the Yankees, 13-11, in a game marked by a scary scene as Cleveland pitcher and ex-Bison David Huff took an Alex Rodriguez line drive off the head. The ball ricocheted into right field as a horrified stadium full of fans watched. Huff was driven off in a cart to a hospital and actually returned to the park after the game following a negative CT-scan. Amazing.
Late Saturday night on his Twitter page, Huff thanked the teams' training staffs and doctors, the Yankees' security staff even A-Rod for calling.
3). Then we moved to night. While most everyone in Philadelphia was watching the Flyers game, Roy Halladay was working on history of his own. By the ninth inning,the TVs in the bars were being switched in time to see him complete the 20th perfect game in history, a 1-0 win over the Marlins. Here's MLB.com's recap. It's the first time since 1880 we've had two perfectos in the same season. Yes, 1880. One of them that year by Providence's John Ward was against the Buffalo Bisons!
Plenty of defensive switches for the Bisons today as they meet Toledo in the third game of their four-game set. You wouldn't do this in the big leagues but Triple-A clubs often are told by the parent to experiment with players at different positions and that's what we're seeing today.
Jesus Feliciano, whose four-hit night Friday pushed his average to an IL-leading .380, is playing center field today for just the second time this season. Justin Turner, just acquired on waivers from Baltimore, is making his first start at short while Ruben Tejada plays second for just the fourth time. Russ Adams makes his second start in right and J.R. House gets start No. 4 at catcher as Josh Thole gets the day off following a night game. Tobi Stoner is on the mound for the Herd today against Toledo's Enrique Gonzalez.
Jesus Feliciano, cf Justin Turner, ss Daniel Murphy, dh Mike Hessman, 3b Mike Jacobs, 1b Andy Green, lf Russ Adams, rf J.R. House, c Ruben Tejada, 2b --- Tobi Stoner, p
UB president John Simpson will throw out the first pitch during the Bisons game at 7:05 p.m. tonight at Coca-Cola Field. According to the Bisons notes, Simpson played outfielder for Stevenson High School in Carmel, Calif. and still has the baseball glove he bought as an 8th grader: a Wilson A2010 model endorsed by San Francisco Giants pitcher Johnny Antonelli. Simpson grew up rooting for the San Francisco Giants and his favorite player was Willie Mays.
Here is the starting lineup for tonight's game:
Jesus Feliciano, cf Justin Turner, 2b Daniel Murphy, 1b Mike Hessman, 3b Mike Jacobs, dh Mike Cervenak, lf Josh Thole, c Russ Adams, rf Ruben Tejada, ss Dillion Gee, p
Jerry Manuel's job status is suddenly quiet, the pitching is terrific and all is well in Mets land. That's what can happen when you go 5-1 against the Yankees and Phillies. The Mets' 3-0 win last night at Citi Field gave them their first shutout sweep of a three-game series since they blanked-blanked-blanked the Phils way back in 1969!
It was a big day in the New York Post, which blared the headline "Blanks for Coming" at the Phils to go with its game story.
Crazy facts from the Post's Joel Sherman: Rod Barajas leads major league catchers with 10 homers. R.A. Dickey and Hisonari Takahashi won more games this week against Philly (2) than John Maine and Oliver Perez won overall (1) in 16 starts. At least the Mets fixed the Maine-Perez mistake before Memorial Day. Memo to the Mets: Stop trying to convince Ollie to come to Buffalo!
In the Philly Inquirer, Chase Utley broke out the character building time cliche. Hope so. That's four shutouts in five games. Guess they're not stealing signs anymore. At least not on the road. If they return home and start pounding the ball again, suspicions are really going to be raised.
Mike Hessman isn't all that impressed with numbers. He's more interested in getting good swings and being patient at the plate, something he's made major strides with this season. That said, the numbers the Buffalo third baseman is compiling are absurd.
Hessman hit two more home runs Thursday, including a walkoff shot in the 10th, as the Bisons beat Toledo, 8-7, at Coca-Cola Field. Pretty hard to believe this one but Hessman said his game-winner was the first walkoff his minor-league career. And keep in mind he has 327 homers in 15 seasons. No walkoffs? Wow.
Here's the latest rundown of Hessman's stats heading into Thursday night's schedule in the big leagues:
---He has 16 HRs, second in all of pro ball to the 17 by Double-A Jacksonville's Mike Stanton (Toronto's Jose Bautista has 15 for the MLB lead).
---Hessman leads the pros in RBIs with 51 (Class A Lexington's Kody Hinze has 50, Texas' Vladimir Guerrro is the MLB leader with 42).
---Hesssman also leads in extra-base hits with 32 (Philadelphia's Jayson Werth is next with 31).
Get this: The Bisons' leader in RBIs and extra-base hits last year was Mike Lamb, with 53 and 36, respectively. Hessman has nearly caught those totals. He's nearly halfway to the franchise records for home runs (34) and RBIs (103) set in 1998 by Alex Ramirez and we're only at game 47, not even at Memorial Day.
Crazy. Click below to hear Hessman's postgame meeting with the media Thursday. References to "LP" are to Toledo manager Larry Parrish and "Bull" is Mud Hens hitting coach Leon "Bull" Durham, the former Chicago Cubs star.
So should you run out and buy tickets to the Bisons-Syracuse game next Thursday expecting to see Stephen Strasburg pitching for the Chiefs? Might not be a bad speculative move and prospects for a Strasburg appearance grew Wednesday night when the Nationals' Web site said the phenom's big-league debut won't be until the June 8-10 series against the Pirates.
Still, it's far from a lock Strasburg pitches here. First off, he's got to throw Saturday in Syracuse against Scranton, meaning no rain up the Thruway to wreck the Chiefs' rotation and push him back a day. And a couple weeks ago, the Nationals opted to give him an extra day of rest, pushing a start in Pawtucket back a day so he worked in Rochester instead.
The June 3 date is Strasburg's regular rest day. An extra day pushes him back to June 4 -- in Syracuse against Durham. That would be bye-bye, Buffalo. So keep all that in mind.
By the way, in answer to numerous emails already today, the Bisons are not going to move the game from the afternoon to the evening for a variety of reasons. First off, it's far from a lock Strasburg will even be pitching. Here's the other reasons:
1. The game is an SNY telecast and the day slot is what is locked into TV schedules and also what the team has used for its group sales marketing for June 3 as well. (Update: I'm told satellite time, usually an issue in these situations, isn't a biggie here becaue of the Time Warner/SNY relationship allowing the game to be aired via fibreoptics). 2. The Taste of Country concert is the next day at Coca-Cola Field and the team needs the late afternoon and evening of June 3 for setup. 3. The Bisons are heading to Norfolk, Va. right after the game. That's a looooooooong trip to be starting in the midnight range. 4. There's no way the International League would approve a time change simply on the basis of who a potential opposing starting pitcher is.
It's just plain bad luck the potential Strasburg game is a weekday afternoon, folks. Rest assured the Bisons would love for it to be a night game too so they could get a bigger house. But it's going to be played at 1 p.m. Period.
The annual Kids Day at Coca-Cola Field is set for a 10:35 first pitch today as the Bisons open an eight-game homestand against the Toledo Mud Hens. More than 10,000 area schoolchildren are expected to be on hand. Cue the Spongebob Squarepants theme.
It will be the first home game for Daniel Murphy, optioned from the Mets after a spring training knee injury. It will also be the first game against his former team for Herd third baseman Mike Hessman, who has spent the last five years with the Mud Hens and essentially became the Jeff Manto of Toledo. Hessman had 140 home runs with the Hens -- more than double anyone else in the long history of the Toledo franchise.
The Mud Hens hit town 1 1/2 games behind Columbus in the IL West. Detroit second baseman Carlos Guillen (hamstring) is batting third in the Toledo lineup on an injury rehab assignment. He's 5 for 14 in four games thus far. The Bisons, meanwhile, are third in the North, a game behind Syracuse and a half-game behind Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Those teams open a five-game, two-city series with a double-header tonight in Scranton.
Here's today's Buffalo lineup:
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, p
