Nashville Sounds
Reno, NV – The Nashville Sounds slugged their way to an 8-5 victory over the Reno Aces Friday night. The Sounds clobbered four home runs in the contest while three players recorded multi-hit games.
The Sounds gave Aces starter Taylor Clarke a rude welcome to the Triple-A level. Nashville tagged the young right-hander for eight runs on nine hits including all four of Nashville’s home runs.
Nashville spotted Corey Walter a 1-0 lead after the top half of the first inning. Franklin Barreto launched an opposite field home run to put the Sounds on top. For Barreto it was his 14th home run of the season between Nashville and Oakland, which set a new single-season high for the A’s top prospect.
The Sounds continued to play home run derby in the third inning. Barreto legged out an infield single to spark the two-out rally. Matt Olson drilled a no-doubter over the right field fence, which was followed up by Renato Nuñez with his Minor League-leading 28th home run of the season.
Reno responded in the home half of the third inning with a two out rally of its own. Walter retired the first eight batters he faced in the game before John Ryan Murphy stepped to the plate and ignited the Aces offense. Three consecutive singles from Murphy, Socrates Brito, and Christian Walker put the Aces on the scoreboard. Walker’s RBI single was his 100th run driven in on the season, which leads all of Minor League baseball. Walter was able to limit the damage following a walk to load the bases. The right-hander induced a slow ground ball to second base to avoid surrendering a crooked number.
The Aces cut the lead in half in the fourth inning. Kevin Medrano led off with a double and came around to score on an Evan Marzilli sacrifice fly. Following the third hit of the inning the Sounds turned to right-hander Tucker Healy who promptly retired the first two hitters he faced to extinguish the threat.
Three straight doubles and a home run extended the Sounds lead to 8-2 in the top of the fifth inning. Barreto got the inning started with a two-bagger. Then Olson and Nuñez each logged RBI doubles followed by a Chris Carter bomb, his first home run and first runs driven in in a Sounds uniform.
Chris Bassitt surrendered a pair of runs in his two innings of relief for the Sounds but Kyle Finnegan and Lou Trivino kept the Aces at bay with a pair of scoreless innings. The two right-handers combined the strike out five of the seven Aces they faced and allowed just one base runner, which came on an error.
Reno wrapped up the scoring in the bottom of the ninth inning with an RBI double from Zach Borenstein off Patrick Schuster.
Barreto, Olson, and Nuñez each posted multi-hit games for the Sounds led by Barreto’s trio of hits.
Game three of the four-game series is scheduled for Saturday night at Greater Nevada Field. Right-hander Ben Bracewell (1-2, 5.28) starts for Nashville against right-hander Matt Koch (1-1, 8.14) for Reno. First pitch is scheduled for 9:05pm CST.
The 2017 season is the Sounds’ 40th in franchise history and their third as the Oakland Athletics’ top affiliate. Single-game tickets are available now by calling 615.690.4487 or by visiting www.nashvillesounds.com
