Claudio Vargas Sharp For Nashville In Victory
Fresno, CA – Veteran hurler Claudio Vargas worked seven strong innings to lead the Nashville Sounds to a 9-1 victory over the Fresno Grizzlies on Saturday evening at Chukchansi Park in the finale of a four-game series.
With the victory, Nashville (52-63) gained a split of the four-game set. It marked the Sounds’ most lopsided win since an 8-0 triumph over the New Orleans Zephyrs on June 2nd.
Vargas (5-1) earned his fifth win of the year by holding the Grizzlies to one unearned run on seven hits over seven frames and induced three double plays in recording his fifth quality start. After allowing his lone run in the first frame, he didn’t allow a Fresno runner to reach second again until the seventh, stranding a runner on third in his final frame. Vargas helped his own cause at the dish, going 2-for-3 with an RBI single in the contest.
Fresno took a 1-0 lead in the first inning with an unearned run against Vargas. Emmanuel Burriss led off the frame with a triple to right. Two batters later, Francisco Peguero lifted a fly ball to right that Corey Patterson gloved and fired to the plate. His throw beat Burriss but the runner scored as Quintero was charged with a missed catch error on the play.
The Sounds responded immediately, grabbing a 2-1 advantage in the top of the second. Taylor Green led off with a single against Fresno starter Yusmeiro Petit and scored the tying run on Bianchi’s one-out RBI double. Quintero made up for his gaff in the previous inning by pushing Nashville into the lead with a two-out RBI single, giving the backstop seven RBIs in six games with the Sounds.
Nashville extended the lead to 4-1 in the fourth against Petit. With runners on second and third, Quintero lifted a sacrifice fly to center to plate Bianchi and Vargas helped his own cause with a two-out RBI single to center to bring in Patterson.
Petit (5-4) took the loss for the Grizzlies after giving up four runs (three earned) on six hits over five innings of work.
The Sounds tacked on a run in the top of the eighth when Brown and Bianchi ripped back-to-back, two-out doubles off Lively to push the visitors’ lead to 6-1.
Nashville closed out the night’s scoring with three ninth-inning runs off Dan Runzler. Halton belted a two-run, pinch-hit homer to center off the right-hander, his 12th roundtripper of the year and second of the pinch-hit variety. Quintero preceded Halton with a double and also scored on the blast. Caleb Gindl followed the homer with a single and later scored the final Nashville tally on a Green groundout.
Donovan Hand followed Vargas with a scoreless eighth from the hill before Mitch Stetter and Jesus Sanchez combined on a scoreless ninth to close out the victory for Nashville.
Bianchi ended the game with an incredible play for the Sounds, diving behind the second base bag to snare a Todd Linden liner then, from his back, flipped the ball to Eric Farris at second to complete a game-ending double play, Nashville’s fourth twin-killing of the evening.
The Sounds travel to Sacramento tonight to continue their West Coast road trip with Sunday’s 8:05pm CT opener of a four-game series against the River Cats (AAA-A’s) at Raley Field. Right-hander Wily Peralta (6-9, 4.94) will make the start for Nashville and face rehabbing Sacramento left-hander Brett Anderson (0-0, 5.63).
Box Score
Nashville Sounds 9, Fresno Grizzlies 1
August 4th, 2012
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nashville Sounds | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 14 | 1 | |
| Fresno Grizzlies | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 0 | |
| Nashville | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | LOB | AVG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Farris, 2B | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .285 |
| Gindl, CF | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | .249 |
| Davis, Kh, LF | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | .320 |
| Green, T, 3B | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .266 |
| Brown, J, 1B | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | .304 |
| Bianchi, SS | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .312 |
| Patterson, C, RF | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .257 |
| Quintero, C | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .278 |
| Vargas, P | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .308 |
| Hand, P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .286 |
| a-Halton, PH | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .270 |
| Stetter, P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Sanchez, Je, P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Totals | 39 | 9 | 14 | 9 | 1 | 8 | 11 | .257 |
| a-Homered for Hand in the 9th. | ||||||||
| BATTING 2B: Bianchi 2 (9, Petit, Y, Lively), Brown, J (17, Lively), Quintero (2, Runzler), Davis, Kh (2, Runzler). HR: Brown, J (6, 6th inning off Lively, 0 on, 0 out), Halton (12, 9th inning off Runzler, 1 on, 0 out). TB: Farris; Quintero 3; Brown, J 6; Bianchi 5; Vargas 2; Halton 4; Davis, Kh 2; Green, T; Gindl. RBI: Bianchi 2 (15), Quintero 2 (11), Vargas (3), Brown, J (28), Halton 2 (42), Green, T (16). 2-out RBI: Quintero; Vargas; Bianchi. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Farris; Patterson, C; Brown, J. SF: Quintero. Team RISP: 4-for-10. Team LOB: 5.BASERUNNING CS: Farris (10, 2nd base by Lively/Williams).FIELDING E: Quintero (1, missed catch). DP: 4 (Vargas-Bianchi-Brown, J 2, Bianchi-Farris-Brown, J, Bianchi-Farris). |
||||||||
| Fresno | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | LOB | AVG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burriss, 2B | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .500 |
| Christian, LF | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .359 |
| Peguero, F, RF | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .260 |
| Gillaspie, 3B | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .297 |
| Noonan, SS | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | .302 |
| Lollis, R, CF | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .341 |
| Linden, 1B | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .280 |
| Williams, C | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .263 |
| Petit, Y, P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .154 |
| a-Ciriaco, PH | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .263 |
| Lively, P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .200 |
| b-Bond, PH | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .341 |
| Runzler, P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Totals | 31 | 1 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 15 | .282 |
| a-Struck out for Petit, Y in the 5th. b-Flied out for Lively in the 8th. | ||||||||
| BATTING 3B: Burriss (1, Vargas). TB: Lollis, R 2; Linden; Christian; Gillaspie 2; Burriss 4; Peguero, F 2. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Williams. GIDP: Gillaspie, Peguero, F, Noonan. Team RISP: 0-for-4. Team LOB: 6.BASERUNNING CS: Lollis, R (3, 2nd base by Vargas/Quintero).FIELDING PB: Williams (10). DP: (Williams-Burriss). |
||||||||
| Nashville | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vargas (W, 5-1) | 7.0 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3.86 |
| Hand | 1.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.00 |
| Stetter | 0.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7.36 |
| Sanchez, Je | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Totals | 9.0 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 4.53 |
| Fresno | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Petit, Y (L, 5-4) | 5.0 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 3.25 |
| Lively | 3.0 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 3.63 |
| Runzler | 1.0 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7.16 |
| Totals | 9.0 | 14 | 9 | 8 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 4.77 |
HBP: Linden (by Vargas).
Pitches-strikes: Vargas 85-58, Hand 9-8, Stetter 12-6, Sanchez, Je 2-2, Petit, Y 76-54, Lively 47-30, Runzler 20-14.
Groundouts-flyouts: Vargas 6-6, Hand 1-1, Stetter 0-0, Sanchez, Je 0-0, Petit, Y 5-3, Lively 2-3, Runzler 2-1.
Batters faced: Vargas 26, Hand 4, Stetter 3, Sanchez, Je 1, Petit, Y 22, Lively 12, Runzler 7.
Inherited runners-scored: Sanchez, Je 2-0.
Umpires: HP: Michael Lusky. 1B: Stephen Barga. 3B: Greg Schoonard.
Weather: 97 degrees, partly cloudy.
Wind: 14 mph, Out to RF.
T: 2:44.
Att: 6,403.
