JUNE 26th PAWTUCKET (38-37) at BUFFALO (34-35) 7:05 pm Pawtucket Red Sox RHP Fernando Rodriguez, Jr. (2-1, 4.39) vs. Buffalo Bisons RHP Sean Reid-Foley (2-2, 5.46) Passing the Herd - The Pawtucket Red Sox – who have won 6 of their last 7 games to go over the .500 mark (at 38-37) for the first time since May 8 – play game two of their 4-game series against the Buffalo Bisons (AAA-Toronto) tonight at 7:05 pm at Coca-Cola Field in downtown Buffalo. Pawtucket’s come-from-behind, 3-2 victory last night in the series opener moved the PawSox into sole possession of 2nd-place in the IL North for the first time since they were alone in 1st-place on May 11. The win enabled the Sox to jump over the Bisons who had owned 2nd-place in the division since June 3rd. Buffalo and Rochester are now tied for 3rd-place and 1- game behind Pawtucket. The PawSox do still trail front-running Lehigh Valley by 6-games in the division. This Series and This Trip – The next two games of this series in Buffalo (tonight & tomorrow) will be at 7:05 pm with the finale on Thursday afternoon at 1:05 pm. The Sox will then slide south to Moosic, PA for a 3-game weekend set at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Friday (7:05 pm), Saturday (6:35 pm), and Sunday (1:05 pm). Pawtucket will head home after the Sunday afternoon game and be back at McCoy Stadium for just two games – the traditional July 2 & 3 Patriotic Firework games (both at 6:15 pm vs. Rochester) nest Monday and Tuesday evenings. Last Homestand – The PawSox are coming off a 5-2 homestand that began last week when they took 3 of 4 from these Buffalo Bisons (last Tuesday – Thursday) and concluded this past weekend with the Sox winning 2 of 3 over Syracuse. Pawtucket is 22-18 at home to equal their season-high of 4-games over .500 at McCoy (from May 22 and June 22). The Sox are 15-19 on the road. Hovering Around .500 – Pawtucket presently has gone over the .500 mark for the first time since May 8 (at 15-14). A victory tonight would push the Sox 2-games above .500 for the first time since May 7 at 15-13. What Have You Done for Me Lately – Pawtucket has presently won 6 of their last 7 games following a 3-game losing streak. The Sox have had a pair of 4-game winning streaks from June 10-13 and G2 on June 19-22. Those fell one shy of equaling their longest of the season when the Sox won 5 straight from May 27-31. Over a longer stretch, Pawtucket has won 11 of 16 and 19 of their last 29 games since May 27. Before that, the Sox had lost 15 of their previous 19 games from May 7-26. Getting in Tune in June – The PawSox have improved to 14-10 in June with just five games remaining in the month. One more victory would clinch a winning June for the Sox. They are hitting .265 (210-for-793) with 22 HR this month along with a 3.09 ERA (79 ER in 207 IP). Pawtucket, who finished 11-10 this April and 13-17 this May (hitting just .227 in May), had their best month of last season in June going 17-14. They are scheduled to play 29 games in 30 days this June. North Face - On June 11 the PawSox began a span of 32 straight games against IL North rivals through July 15 (which is just after the All-Star break). Pawtucket is 24-27 vs. their IL North foes thus far. They are 7-8 vs. the IL West and 7-2 vs. the IL South. Series Business – Pawtucket – up 1-0 in this 4-game set at Buffalo - is 9-11-4 in their first 27 series of the season (9 wins, 11 losses, and 4 splits). They have posted three 3-game sweeps this season along with a 2-game sweep. NEXT ON TAP - The probable pitching match-ups for the remainder of the series at Buffalo: Wed. 7:05 pm RHP William Cuevas (5-4, 3.71) vs. RHP Chris Rowley (4-4, 3.36) Thur. 1:05 pm RHP Chandler Shepherd (4-5, 3.61) vs. TBA The 2018 Season-Series vs. Buffalo – The PawSox own an 8-5 edge in the season-series over Buffalo. Pawtucket is 5-4 at home vs. the Bisons and 3-1 here in Buffalo. The Bisons took 2 of 3 in Pawtucket during the first full week of the season from April 9-11, but the PawSox returned the favor by winning 2 of 3 in Buffalo at the end of the month from April 27-29. Buffalo out-lasted the PawSox on April 9, 4-3 in 12-innings in the first extra inning game at McCoy with new rules. The Sox evened things with a 3-1 victory the next night, but the Bisons captured the series outright with a 14-8 slugfest victory in the finale on the afternoon of April 11. Just over two weeks later, the PawSox went to Buffalo and won 2 of 3. That series again began with a Sox extra inning victory (9-8 in 10- innings on April 27) followed by a 6-3 Pawtucket win the next day. The Bisons avoided the sweep with a 2-0 triumph in the finale on April 29. In mid-May the clubs played an abbreviated 2-game series that began with a 6-5, 10-inning victory for the PawSox on May 14 and ended with a 5-4 Bisons win on May 16 to knot the season-series at 4-4. In between was the May 15 rainout that caused a June 19 doubleheader in Pawtucket…Buffalo won opener, 4-0 but Sox took nightcap, 6-0. The next night the PawSox rolled to a 10-2 victory to take the season-series lead and then last Thursday (June 21) the Sox won the series outright with a 4-1 victory in Buffalo’s last regular-season game at McCoy this year. Pawtucket used a 2-run HR from Adam Lind in the 8th-inning to rally past the Bisons last night, 3-2 in the series-opener in Buffalo. Stats vs. the Bisons This Season – Pawtucket is hitting .247 in the 13 games vs. Buffalo this season (107-for-433) with 11 HR while PawSox pitchers are 8-5 with a 3.23 ERA vs. the Bisons (42 ER in 117 IP). Pawtucket has out-scored Buffalo, 62-51 thus far in the tight 2018 season-series. Getting to Know You –The PawSox and Bisons will meet 20 times this season…the 9 in Pawtucket have already been completed (Sox went 5-4 in those) and 11 in Buffalo. The Sox and Bisons will conclude their season-series against each other in two months with a 4- game wrap-around weekend series from August 24-27 at Coca-Cola Field in downtown Buffalo. Success vs. the Bisons Lately – Pawtucket and Buffalo have had some tight season-series in recent years. The PawSox finished 9-9 vs. the Bisons last season (going 6-5 in Pawtucket but 3-4 in Buffalo). The PawSox were 10-8 vs. the Bisons in 2016, but the Sox finished 8-9 vs. Buffalo in 2015. The 2015 season marked the only time the Sox have lost a season-series to the Bisons since 2008 when they went 6-10. Always a Battle vs. Buffalo - The all-time series (this is the 21st year) between Pawtucket and Buffalo has gone back and forth in recent times and the PawSox come into play tonight with a 172-163 advantage. These two rivals have battled for 20½ years now since Buffalo returned to the IL in 1998. The PawSox are 95-77 at home (including 0-1 at Fenway Park) vs. the Bisons but 77-86 in Buffalo since ’98. Buffalo was a Cleveland affiliate from 1998 – 2008, a New York Mets affiliate from 2009-2012, and currently a Toronto Blue Jays affiliate for the 6th straight year. A Hectic May - The PawSox finished an extremely busy May with a 13-17 record for the month. The topsy-turvy travel month included four different homestands and four different roadtrips. Pitchers posted a 3.60 ERA in May while batters hit .227 with 22 HR and 97 runs in 30 May games (for an average of 3.2 runs per game). The Sox played 30 games in 31 days in May with just one scheduled off-day (May 17) during the entire month. April Comes up a Winner – The PawSox posted a winning April for the 6th time in the last 8 years as they finished the month with an 11-10 record and in 2nd-place in the IL North (-2 GB of front-running Syracuse at the time). Pawtucket has had just one losing month of April since 2010 and that came last year (10-12). The Sox hit .233 in April with 16 HR in 21 games while pitchers were 11-10 with a 3.51 ERA along with a league-leading 230 strikeouts in 190 innings. Trending Positive – The PawSox (now at 38-37) were a season-low 8-games below .500 on May 26 at 19-27.