For true baseball fans, this is the best time of the year. The final month of the regular season. The time of year where some teams play meaningful baseball as they make the final push for a coveted playoff berth.

For the Buffalo Bisons, the team enters August in a neck-and-neck race with two other teams, the Rochester Red Wings and the Scranton/Wilkes Barre Yankees, for the International League North title. Only one team will win the division; a second might qualify as the wild card team. But one thing is for certain—the way things have gone this year, it might be the final week of the season before the division title is decided.

“Those are two quality teams we’re battling against,” admitted Bisons Manager Torey Lovullo. “They deserve to be up there as much as we do.”

Lovullo has had more than his share of headaches and distractions in this 2007 season. From the get-go, Bisons pitching has been decimated. “Four out of five of our opening day starting rotation is either injured or called up to Cleveland,” Lovullo said. The team has been near the league bottom in pitching performance and entering August finds itself in 11th place in team ERA.

With the parent Cleveland Indians contending for the playoffs, the organization has had more than its share of trade rumors, and those scenarios have played out with the Bisons these past two weeks. “Yeah, we’ve had a number of scouts coming through here and the players hear all kinds of things, but most of all we have to realize these men are professionals, they have a job to do and can’t be distracted,” Lovullo said. “I think we’ve done a pretty good job of keeping the distractions away.”

One of the biggest changes happening during the offseason was the departure of Director of Player Development John Farrell, who left the Cleveland organization to become pitching coach for the Boston Red Sox. Farrell had an uncanny knack for stocking the Tribe’s minor league roster with quality prospects, and his teams have enjoyed nothing but success at all levels of the chain. “Sure, John’s presence has been missed,” Lovullo said. “He is a good friend of mine and someone I’ve worked closely with since I’ve started managing here, but really the changes here have just involved different personalities. Ross Atkins has stepped in and done a good job as John’s replacement.”

But surely Cleveland has done Buffalo no favors this year, right? Lovullo laughed and replied, “Well, we certainly haven’t stayed with the script we laid out in spring training, but we have to remember the primary reason we are here—to develop players and prepare them for the big leagues.”

Lovullo laid out his plans for the pitching staff as his team enters this crucial part of the schedule: “We have put a lot on the shoulders of Sean Smith, Jeff Harris and Eric DuBose to step into the starting rotation, and they have come through for us in a big way. Bubby Buzachero has filled in wherever we have asked him to be, as a spot starter, as a middle reliever and as a long reliever, and he has taken on any assignment we have given him. I have every confidence that these guys can sustain us for the last five weeks of the season.”

Lovullo expressed support for his team and his players, but meting out criticism is something he is loathe to do. “I don’t want to belittle anybody openly, I don’t want air dirty laundry, but I talk regularly with my players behind closed doors; I let them know what my expectations are. But I don’t want to scatter negative thoughts out there. These guys do pick up the newspaper and I can tell you this: As a player I remember how it really hurt to be called out in the public for poor performance or diminished expectations, instead of hearing it from your manager first. But no, you guys will never hear me putting down my players to the media; it is something that is not within me.”

Can the Bisons emerge on top of this chase? Will we see September baseball? And can Bisons pitching sustain itself in a playoff series, when defense becomes that much more important? Lovullo replied, “As far as our pitching is concerned, all I can worry about is the next few games. I can’t concern myself with the rotation for the playoffs until we actually get there.”

Continuing, Lovullo said, “But as to winning a pennant? Absolutely. This team, this front office and this organization is committed to winning baseball and bringing another championship to Buffalo. We expect to develop positive attitudes within this organization, and to do that, we go out there and expect to win every night.”

From here on out, the Bisons will play only against divisional opponents. Key series will include August 3-6 at the Scranton/Wilkes Barre Yankees, August 12-13 facing the same Yanks here at home, and August 14-17, when the Rochester Red Wings come to Dunn Tire Park. The season concludes in Rochester August 31-September 3. “We’ll give our fans a show,” Lovullo promised. “It should be an exciting time for everyone involved.”