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The Bisons lefthander, still seeking his first win, worked six complete frames against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs on Wednesday night. He was roughed up a bit, allowing three runs in the third inning and surrendering a pair of solo homers in the sixth as the Herd dropped a 5-3 decision.

Due to a torrential downpour, the game was stalled for 70 minutes with two out in the bottom of the ninth and a 3-0 count on Jesus Feliciano. Feliciano eventually walked, but pinch-hitter Robinson Cancel flied out to end the game. Only two minutes were needed to finish it off.

Niese (0-4) allowed seven hits and three walks as he made it to the sixth inning for only the third time in seven Triple-A starts. Despite yielding five runs, he actually reduced his earned run average to 7.96. But the two rough innings and another fruitless showing by the Bisons offense spelled a familiar result.

“Last year I had a good year,” said Niese, who was a combined 12-9 at three levels in 2008 and earned the Mets organizational pitcher of the year award. “This year things aren’t going my way.”

“He threw a lot better than he has,” commented Bisons manager Ken Oberkfell. “But a couple of walks and a couple of long balls hurt him.”

“My mechanics are good,” Niese added. “It’s one of those things where it’s a struggle to get outs. I’ll continue to work and I think things are going to turn around.”

Niese went six innings on May 2, in the start prior to his promotion to New York. With the Mets, he made two appearances, lasting six and 4 2/3 innings, respectively. But last Friday against Columbus, he was pounded for nine runs (seven earned) on 12 hits in a 3-2/3 inning stint.

As a result, this game against the IronPigs seemed like a vast improvement.

“I thought I was making pretty good pitches,” Niese said. “Give credit to their hitters. It seemed like if I was throwing outside, they were looking outside. If I was throwing inside, they were looking inside.”

Buffalo, meanwhile, didn’t start its scratch-and-claw routine until they were down 5-0. They got one back in the bottom of the sixth when Cory Sullivan doubled and scored on a double-play grounder by Michel Abreu.

In the seventh, the Bisons got two back. Back-to-back doubles by Rene Rivera and Feliciano drove out IronPigs starter Kyle Kendrick (4-3), and a ground out by pinch-hitter Jason Cooper scored Feliciano.

The Herd, however, went down in order in the eighth against Lehigh Valley reliever Cedrick Bowers and were on their way to following suit in the rain-soaked ninth against Tyler Walker before the delay.

Mike Koplove worked the remainder of the ninth and picked up his sixth save.

“We had some opportunities and didn’t get the hits with men on base,” Oberkfell said. “When you have a chance, you hope someone can come through. It hasn’t been that way.”

………

Argenis Reyes went 2-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to eight games, the longest by a Bison this season.

Fernando Martinez had a seven-game streak intact before Tuesday’s promotion to New York.

Reyes is 12-for-32 (.375) during his streak.

“He’s playing well,” said Oberkfell. “He’s been a good leadoff hitter for us. He’s been getting on base.”

………

The Bisons continued to play one man under the International League’s 24-man roster limit. Nobody has been assigned by the Mets to come to Buffalo in place of Martinez.

“I’m sure they won’t leave us short-handed,” observed Oberkfell.

When asked if he’s been campaigning for another player to fill the roster slot, the manager quipped, “Yeah – if he can drive in some runs.”

He added: “It doesn’t really affect us. We don’t do a lot of pinch-hitting, plus after tomorrow we’ll be playing American League (affiliates), where we hardly use pinch-hitters at all.”