Nashville Sounds shutout Memphis Redbirds for 1-0 win

Nashville Sounds Baseball

Nashville’s Hector Gomez Goes 2-for-5 with Homer in 5th Inning

Memphis, TN – The first-place Nashville Sounds (33-29) edged the Memphis Redbirds Friday night at AutoZone Park in a 1-0 shutout victory.

Sounds shortstop Hector Gomez, 2-for-5, picked up where he left off last night to give Nashville its only run of the game in the fifth inning with a home run over the left field wall.

The solo shot marked Gomez’s eighth long ball of the season and his third over his last five at-bats, spanning back to his two-homer night on Thursday.

Nashville saw many opportunities to score earlier in the contest, but a stingy Memphis defense stranded Sounds runners in each of the first five innings.

The game began after a 57-minute-long rain delay with rehabbing Milwaukee Brewers lefty Tom Gorzelanny making the start for Nashville. He completed 2 1/3 scoreless innings on his 35-pitch limit.

The 31-year-old allowed one hit and picked up a strikeout, throwing a total of 34 pitches and 22 for strikes. Reliever Dustin Molleken completed the third inning for the Sounds before the team’s regularly scheduled starter, Jimmy Nelson (7-1), took the hill.

Even out of the bullpen, Nelson looked every bit like the Pacific Coast League’s ERA leader and delivered six scoreless frames for the Sounds to complete the shutout and lower his season average to 1.51.

Nelson fought off an inning-opening double in the seventh and a bases-loaded jam in the eighth to pick up the victory: his seventh of the season and team-best sixth in a row.

Nashville recorded seven hits to Memphis’ four in the team’s fourth shutout victory of the year. It is the Sounds’ first nine-inning 1-0 win since blanking Oklahoma City at Greer Stadium on April 8th, 2013.

The Sounds will play game three against the Memphis Redbirds on Saturday night at 6:05pm. RHP Mike Fiers (6-3, 2.53) will start for Nashville opposite Redbirds lefty Nick Greenwood (3-2, 2.29) Broadcaster Jeff Hem has the call on 102.5 The Game.

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