Nashville, TN – Sean Halton went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and Taylor Green and Irving Falu each homered to lead the Nashville Sounds to their sixth straight win, a 5-1 victory over the Iowa Cubs on Sunday afternoon at Greer Stadium.
The first-place Sounds (18-12) have won nine of their last 10 games and improved to 10-4 in home contests this season with the triumph.
Ariel Pena (1-2) picked up his first Triple-A victory with his first quality start of the year. The Nashville right-hander held the I-Cubs to one run on four hits in his season-high six innings of work, striking out six batters with no walks during his 98-pitch effort.Pena’s outing continued the recent string of outstanding efforts by Nashville starting pitchers. In the past six games, Sounds starters have allowed only three earned runs in 34 innings, a 0.79 ERA.
The Sounds got out to an early 1-0 with a first-inning score against Iowa starter Eric Jokisch. Pete Orr led off the frame with a single to left, stole second, moved to third on a groundout, and scored on Sean Halton’s two-out RBI knock to center.
Pena opened the game with four innings of scoreless, one-hit ball before Josh Vitters knotted the contest at 1-1 with a leadoff solo homer in the fifth, the outfielder’s third big fly of the year.
Green quickly propelled the Sounds back in front, belting an opposite-field solo homer to left off Jokisch to lead off the home half of the fifth. The longball, his third of the year, spotted Nashville a 2-1 advantage and ended a 56-inning home run drought for Sounds batters.
The Sounds extended the lead to 4-1 later in the frame when Elian Herrera (2-for-4) and Eugenio Velez, who had both singled, scored when Halton reached on an infield single to third and Christian Villanueva misfired to first on the play.
Jokisch (2-2) took the loss despite authoring a quality start of his own for Iowa. He gave up three earned runs on nine hits over his six frames of action.
Falu, who replaced Green as part of a double-switch, extended the Sounds’ lead to 5-1 in the seventh when he led off a solo homer to left off Jeff Antigua, the infielder’s first roundtripper of the season. Falu has reached base safely in each of his last 15 contests, batting .353 (18-for-51) over that stretch.
The Sounds will look to complete their first series sweep of the year on Monday afternoon when the teams wrap up the series with a 12:05pm finale at Greer. Red -hot right-hander Mike Fiers (5-0, 0.80) will make the start for the Sounds to face an unannounced Iowa hurler.
Box Score
May 4, 2014
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Iowa Cubs | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 1 |
Nashville Sounds | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | x | 5 | 10 | 0 |
Iowa | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | LOB | AVG |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Watkins, CF | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .265 |
Anderson, La, 1B | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .244 |
Baez, J, SS | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | .149 |
Valaika, 2B | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | .322 |
Vitters, LF | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .196 |
Villanueva, 3B | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .211 |
Jackson, B, RF | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | .128 |
Whiteside, C | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .158 |
Jokisch, P | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .143 |
a-Gonzalez, E, PH | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .500 |
Antigua, P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
Totals | 33 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 12 | .232 |
a-Flied out for Jokisch in the 7th. | ||||||||
BATTING 2B: Anderson, La (3, Pena, A), Villanueva (10, Blazek). HR: Vitters (3, 5th inning off Pena, A, 0 on, 0 out). TB: Jokisch; Anderson, La 2; Jackson, B; Vitters 4; Villanueva 3. RBI: Vitters (11). Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Jokisch; Gonzalez, E; Jackson, B. Team RISP: 0-for-6. Team LOB: 6.FIELDING E: Villanueva (3, throw). DP: (Jokisch-Baez, J-Anderson, La). |
Nashville | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | LOB | AVG |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Orr, 2B | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .307 |
Herrera, CF | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .271 |
Velez, LF | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .376 |
Halton, RF | 4 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .244 |
Morris, H, 1B | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | .257 |
Gomez, H, SS | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .200 |
May, C | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | .182 |
Green, T, 3B | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .265 |
Marzec, P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
Heckathorn, P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
Blazek, P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
Pena, A, P | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 |
Falu, 3B | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .280 |
Totals | 33 | 5 | 10 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 10 | .251 |
BATTING 2B: Herrera (4, Jokisch). HR: Green, T (3, 5th inning off Jokisch, 0 on, 0 out), Falu (1, 7th inning off Antigua, 0 on, 0 out). TB: Velez; Gomez, H; Falu 4; Herrera 3; Orr; Halton 3; Green, T 4. RBI: Halton 2 (8), Green, T (8), Falu (6). 2-out RBI: Halton 2. GIDP: Green, T. Team RISP: 3-for-4. Team LOB: 4.BASERUNNING SB: Orr (1, 2nd base off Jokisch/Whiteside). |
Iowa | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jokisch (L, 2-2) | 6.0 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 3.65 |
Antigua | 2.0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1.50 |
Totals | 8.0 | 10 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 3.81 |
Nashville | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pena, A (W, 1-2) | 6.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 4.30 |
Marzec (H, 1) | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
Heckathorn | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6.75 |
Blazek | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 8.56 |
Totals | 9.0 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 1 | 3.46 |
WP: Jokisch.
Pitches-strikes: Jokisch 85-61, Antigua 21-15, Pena, A 98-64, Marzec 22-14, Heckathorn 12-10, Blazek 14-9.
Groundouts-flyouts: Jokisch 7-2, Antigua 2-1, Pena, A 2-7, Marzec 0-1, Heckathorn 1-0, Blazek 1-0.
Batters faced: Jokisch 26, Antigua 7, Pena, A 22, Marzec 5, Heckathorn 3, Blazek 4.
Umpires: HP: Shaun Lampe. 1B: Thomas Newsom. 2B: Tom Woodring. 3B: Brian Hertzog.
Weather: 88 degrees, sunny.
Wind: 5 mph, Out to CF.
T: 2:29.
Att: 2,883.
Venue: Herschel Greer Stadium.
May 4, 2014