By PAUL GOTHAM
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Gage Ziehl took the mound Tuesday night at Sahlen Field facing the prospect of dropping a fourth-straight decision.
Instead he left to an ovation from family and friends who were gathered behind the first-base dugout.
“Relieving, to say the least,” the former Penfield High standout said after picking up the win as the Worcester Red Sox (31-26/67-61) defeated the host Buffalo Bisons (29-28/64-68) 9-1.
The 6-foot right-hander retired the last 10 batters he faced and turned in a personal-best at the Triple-A level.
“I’ll tell you what, the last two or three games,” he said. “There have been a couple balls where it’s like, man, just not finding the fielders, but today, they found the fielders.”
Of the 20 outs he recorded, four were via strikes and another dozen came on the ground. A leadoff single in the fourth was the only Bison to reach over his last 4 and 2/3 innings of work. That runner was erased two batters later with an inning-ending double play.
“I was executing, getting the cutter on the hands,” he said. “Broke a couple bats throwing sinkers to the righties and just being able to keep the ball on the ground. When I can do that, you know, it’s gonna be a good night.”
In his previous outing, he allowed six runs (all earned) on nine hits (two home runs) and two walks over three innings of work. He threw 71 pitches, 41 for strikes.
On Tuesday, he needed 73 pitches (47 strikes) to get the job done, 37 of those coming after the second inning. He threw nine or fewer pitches in each of third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings.
“He was consistently in the zone and got the hitters in swing mode a little bit,” said Worcester manager Iggy Suarez. “When you get hitters into that mentality and that mode, then you can expand. When they go to the plate thinking that he’s gonna be in the zone and then he expands it, they’ll start chasing.”
A one-out fly ball in the first that was misjudged turned into a double. Two batters later, Buffalo was on the board with a single.
Ziehl gave up another double to lead the second, and it looked like he was in for another difficult performance. He stranded a pair of runners in the second before finding his rhythm.
“He’s got short-term memory,” Suarez said of Ziehl’s ability to stay composed on the mound. “He’s one of those on the mound, where you don’t know if he’s having a bad outing or a good outing. And those are scary. I hated facing pitchers like that as a player, and even as a manager. Facing guys like that are dangerous because you don’t know where they’re at. That’s how he’s been.”
Worcester scored three runs in the third and added three more in the seventh on a Romy Gonzalez home run.
“These guys are dogs,” Ziehl said of his teammates. “They hit the ball. They were having great at-bats tonight. That three-run bomb by Romy was nice. It’s easy to pitch with a cushion, for sure.”
Ziehl had not lost four straight pitching decisions during his playing career either amateur or professional.
In 2025, his first year as a pro, he went a combined 7-6 over three different levels pitching in both the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox systems.
In college, he went 15-9 over three seasons with the University of Miami Hurricanes never losing more than four in a single season.
After hurling 5 and 2/3 shutout innings in his Triple-A debut on August 8th against Lehigh Valley, he was the pitcher of record in losses to Buffalo (8/14), Syracuse (8/20) and Scranton-Wilkes-Barre (8/26). He allowed three or more runs in each of those setbacks.
On Tuesday, he lowered his earned-run average (ERA) from 6.11 to 4.81.
“It’s a good thing to evaluate and see how he bounces back after those rough hiccups,” Suarez said. “It’s easy, you know, when you’re pitching well, but when you hit that little rough patch, how are you gonna bounce back? He’s been bouncing back pretty good.”
Ziehl heard the cheering from his followers as he emerged for the seventh inning.
“That gave me a little burst of energy.”
He responded by striking out the next two batters he faced.
Suarez came out of the dugout to get the ball from the 23-year old with two out and nobody on base.
Ziehl walked from the mound after a personal best 6 and 2/3 innings at the AAA level and into the applause of those who had risen to their feet.
“I don’t know if I can put words into what that means,” he said. “When I came out, them standing up for me, yeah, it was special for sure.”
Ziehl is scheduled to start again on Sunday when Worcester closes its series at Buffalo.
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