Nashville Sounds Split Doubleheader with Iowa Cubs

Jay Gibbons Homer Propels Nashville Sounds to 3-2 Victory In Nightcap

Des Moines, IA – The Nashville Sounds and Iowa Cubs split a doubleheader for the second consecutive day on Saturday evening at Principal Park.

A sixth-inning Jay Gibbons homer propelled Nashville to a 3-2 victory in the nightcap after Iowa left-hander Brooks Raley fired a six-hit shutout in a 1-0 Cubs victory in the opener.

With the game two win, Nashville (24-39) gained a split of a twinbill against the division-rival Cubs for the second straight evening.

Hainley Statia drew a one-out walk and moved to third on a Corey Patterson double before scoring the game’s first run on an Eric Farris groundout. With two outs, Sounds starting pitcher Amaury Rivas struck out swinging but the pitch eluded Cubs catcher Blake Lalli, allowing Patterson to race home to score on the wild pitch.

Patterson, the Nashville left fielder, kept the lead at two in the bottom of the second when he threw out Ty Wright at the plate as the  Cubs outfielder attempted to score from second on a two-out Caridad single.

Rivas worked three scoreless inning during his spot start for the Sounds, taking a no-decision.

Victor Garate followed the right-hander and worked into and out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth, striking out pinch-hitter Juan Apodaca on a breaking ball to escape the inning unscathed.

The Cubs evened the game at 2-2 in the fifth with a pair of two-out runs against Garate. Iowa got on the board when Luis Valbuena’s two-out RBI double off the left field wall plated Matt Tolbert. Josh Vitters followed with an opposite-field RBI single to right that was just inside the first base bag.

Gibbons put Nashville back in front in the sixth when he slugged his first home run of the year, a two-out solo shot to right off Cubs right-hander Ty’Relle Harris.

Nashville missed a golden opportunity to add an insurance run in the seventh after Patterson led off with his second double of the night and moved to third on a Farris bunt single. Iowa left-hander Scott Maine recovered to strike out Dayton Buller, Caleb Gindl, and Jeff Bianchi to escape the jam.

Rob Wooten retired the final six Iowa batters in order, including a game-ending strikeout of top prospect Anthony Rizzo, to secure the victory and nail down his first career Triple-A save.

Garate (2-3) was the beneficiary of the late Gibbons homer and was awarded the victory despite giving up the game-tying runs in his two innings of work. Harris (0-1) drew the loss after surrendering Gibbons’ homer.

In the opener, Iowa left-hander Brooks Raley tossed a seven-inning, six-hit shutout to lead the Cubs to a 1-0 victory over the Sounds.

Raley (2-1), who retired the final eight batters in order and 14 of the last 15 Sounds overall, threw 90 pitches to record the shutout .The southpaw allowed six hits, struck out six, and did not walk a batter.

The I-Cubs scored the game’s only run in the bottom of the first inning when second baseman Matt Tolbert belted the first pitch he saw from Sounds starter Seth McClung over the center field wall for his first roundtripper of the season.

McClung (1-7) worked out of jams throughout the contest, including stranding the bases loaded twice, in keeping the deficit at one run. The big right-hander allowed one run on seven hits while striking out a season-high eight batters in his 106-pitch, six-inning complete-game effort. The eight punchouts were the highest single-game output by a Nashville pitcher this season.

Nashville advanced a runner to second only twice in the game and both were left stranded there by Raley.

First baseman Sean Halton singled in the first inning to extend the Sounds’ longest active hitting streak to seven games. Outfielder Logan Schafer also singled in the Nashville first to extend his own hit streak to five games.

The defeat was the fourth shutout suffered this season by Nashville.

The teams wrap up the six-game series with a 1:05pm finale on Sunday afternoon. Right-hander Mark Rogers (2-3, 4.47) will toe the rubber for the Sounds to face Iowa southpaw Chris Rusin (4-4, 3.93).

Box Score – Game 1

Iowa Cubs (28-34) 1, Nashville Sounds (23-39) 0
June 9th, 2012

Pitches-strikes: McClung 106-69, Raley 90-59.
Groundouts-flyouts: McClung 8-2, Raley 12-1.
Batters faced: McClung 28, Raley 25.
Umpires: HP: Angel Campos. 1B: Scott Mahoney. 3B: Eric Loveless.
Weather: 90 degrees, clear.
Wind: 16 mph, R to L.
T: 1:55.

Box Score – Game 2

Nashville Sounds (24-39) 3, Iowa Cubs (28-35) 2
June 9th, 2012

WP: Garate, Caridad.
IBB: Gonzalez, A (by Maine).
HBP: Tolbert (by Garate).
Pitches-strikes: Rivas 48-27, Garate 53-34, Wooten 25-16, Caridad 57-33, Harris 25-13, Maine 27-16.
Groundouts-flyouts: Rivas 1-1, Garate 0-3, Wooten 0-1, Caridad 6-0, Harris 3-2, Maine 0-0.
Batters faced: Rivas 12, Garate 12, Wooten 6, Caridad 16, Harris 7, Maine 6.
Umpires: HP: Scott Mahoney. 1B: Eric Loveless. 3B: Angel Campos.
Weather: 84 degrees, clear.
Wind: 9 mph, R to L.
T: 2:09.
Att: 8,779.