Highlights:

He offered much more.

Traber stayed on the mound into the sixth inning, allowing only Ambres' two-run home run over 5 2/3 innings of work. It was his longest outing since last year, when he made two starts for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

"I had no design on sending him into the sixth, but we checked on him every inning after the fourth, and he was like, 'I feel good, let me go'."

Traber said he continued to feel strong following each inning, so he simply went back out to the mound.

"You just kind of go, until you come out of the game," a philosophical Traber said post-game.

While Traber was a surprise, the Pawtucket offense was anything but. Pawtucket again couldn't put bat to ball, managing only three hits and dropping the team's batting average in July to a putrid .172. Buffalo starter Nelson Figueroa baffled the PawSox, going eight innings and walking only one batter by changing speeds and locating his fastball.

"We faced a very good pitcher tonight. He had his way with us," Johnson said.

Why can't we get guys like this? Former PawSox Chip Ambres provided all the offense for Buffalo tonight, hitting two home runs and a single, and walking. Ambres started the year with Pawtucket before he was traded to the New York Mets last month for future considerations.

"I had good swings and I felt good up there, and you kind of want to take advantage of those type of days. I felt good tonight," Ambres said.

Bubba in flight: Bubba Bell made a magnificent leaping dive to save sure extra bases in the second inning, snaring the ball while at a full run near the left field wall. He even jumped up in time to fire the ball back to the infield and double off Buffalo's Javier Castillo at first base, and end the inning.

Rehab stories: Jed Lowrie, playing his first Triple-A game since July 3, went 0-for-4. He made a graceful diving stab of a Wilson Valdez line drive in the third inning. He is now hitting .111 in his Pawtucket rehab stint, but his contact tonight looked significantly better than when he was last in Pawtucket.

"I liked what Jed did tonight. Good bat speed," Johnson said. "Those balls, he had that zip in it that Jed can produce."

Johnson said he had heard from managers at Lowell and Portland that Lowrie's bat had started to look like it had spark to it in the past week, and Johnson was pleased to see the truth in that tonight.

Next up: Buffalo and Pawtucket finish up this two game set with RHP Enrique Gonzalez (7-7, 5.97) facing RHP Tobi Stoner (1-2, 5.75) at 7:05 p.m.

dbarbari@projo.com