Saturday night in Dunn Tire Park was another perfect example of why Jeff Harris is one of the most valuable arms in Torey Lovullo's arsenal.
Harris was penciled in as a reliever for Buffalo in 2008 but the veteran took the mound against Pawtucket and delivered six wonderful innings in a 4-1 victory over the Red Sox.

Pitching on short rest is nothing new for Harris. The 2007 season demonstrated how he was more than willing to fill-in for an injured or depleted pitching staff. After 138.1 innings of work, his teammates showed their appreciation by voting him the 2007 Most Inspirational Player at the end of the campaign.

On Saturday, Harris was called on again. Jeremy Sowers was recalled to Cleveland, Sean Smith was dealt to Colorado on Thursday and Aaron Laffey was limited to 50 pitches in his last start with the possibility of joining the Indians soon. While Harris threw 58 pitches in three innings of relief on Wednesday in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, he stepped up against the PawSox with his best outing of the season.

Harris (1-0) struck out six and allowed just five hits to collect his first win of the season. Pawtucket had base runners in every inning, but the veteran danced in an out of trouble with big pitch after big pitch.

Buffalo never trailed and took the lead for good in the third inning. Aaron Herr continued his hot stretch at the plate when he snapped a 1-1 tie with a two-out RBI-single.

Danny Sandoval scored the first two runs of the game for Buffalo and plated a third run with an RBI-ground out in the fourth inning. Josh Barfield made it 4-1 with an RBI-grounder in the bottom of the eighth.

Three relievers slammed the door shut for Buffalo. Rich Rundles worked the seventh while Edward Mujica threw shutout baseball in the eighth. Rick Bauer got a diving catch from Jason Cooper in right field before turning a game-ending 1-6-3 doubleplay for his fourth save of the year.

Buffalo turned three doubleplays for the second consecutive game. Harris and catcher Wyatt Toregas combined on a strike-him-out, throw-him-out doubleplay in the sixth inning.

BISONS NOTES: 2007 World Series MVP Mike Lowell went 1-4 in his rehab assignment with Pawtucket...Jason Tyner reached base four times with a single and three walks. He also stole two bases...Danny Sandoval finished the game 2-4 with a walk, a double, two runs scored and an RBI.


-herd-