Nashville, TN – The Sacramento River Cats took their third straight game from the Nashville Sounds, prevailing 8-4 on Monday evening at Greer Stadium.
River Cats starter Bruce Billings (3-2) turned in a quality start to post the victory, striking out eight batters while allowing three runs (one earned) on four hits over six innings of action. It marked the right-hander’s third quality start in his last four outings.
The defeat was the fourth in a row for Nashville (10-26), which went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position in the contest.
Sacramento took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning against Sounds starter R.J. Seidel. Jemile Weeks led off with a single, moved to third on a Hiro Nakajima ground-rule double, and later scored the night’s first run on a Shane Peterson sacrifice fly. Grant Green followed a Michael Choice walk with an infield single that scored Nakajima to double the visitors’ advantage.
The River Cats tacked on a run in the third when Choice drew a two-out walk from Seidel and raced around to score on Green’s RBI double off the base of the center field wall.
Nashville got two runs back in the home half of the third, cutting the deficit to 3-2 with a pair of unearned scores against Billings.
Catcher Anderson De La Rosa led off with a double, extending the club’s longest active hitting streak to six games. He has produced an extra-base hit in five of those six tilts. De La Rosa cut the Sounds’ deficit to 3-1 when he scored on Nakajima’s errant throw from shortstop after fielding a Blake Davis grounder. Davis later plated Nashville’s second run of the frame when he scored from third on a Scooter Gennett groundout.
Khris Davis (2-for-3), who homered twice on Sunday afternoon, continued his power surge in the fourth inning when he swatted a game-tying solo homer to left off Billings, his fourth big fly of the year.
Sacramento pulled back in front in the sixth after loading the bases with no outs against the Nashville bullpen. With the bases jammed, Weeks fouled off six straight Jesus Sanchez 3-2 offerings before taking ball four high and away to force in Stephen Vogt, who had opened the frame with a double off Travis Webb (0-2), with the go-ahead run. Nakajima followed with a sac fly to right to up the River Cats’ lead to 5-3.
The River Cats added three more runs in the seventh against Sanchez to extend their advantage to 8-3. Scott Moore delivered the big hit in the frame with a two-run double to right.
Nashville plated the game’s final run in the bottom of the eighth when Sacramento reliever Pedro Figueroa committed a two-out balk with runners on second and third to allow Khris Davis, who singled earlier in the frame, to score.
The teams wrap up the four-game series with an 11:05am finale on Tuesday morning, when it will be Education Day at the ballpark. Right-hander Frankie De La Cruz (1-4, 7.14) will man the bump for the Sounds to face Sacramento left-hander Justin Thomas (1-2, 5.25).
Box Score
May 13th, 2013
Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sacramento River Cats | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 10 | 1 | |
Nashville Sounds | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 2 |
Sacramento River Cats | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Player | Pos | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | AVG |
Jemile Weeks | 2B | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .287 |
Hiroyuki Nakajima | SS | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .250 |
Shane Peterson | 1B | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .297 |
Michael Choice | CF | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | .294 |
Grant Green | DH | 5 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | .297 |
Stephen Vogt | C | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | .347 |
Scott Moore | LF | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | .278 |
Jeremy Barfield | RF | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | .353 |
Andy Parrino | 3B | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .167 |
Totals | 33 | 8 | 10 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 8 | 10 | .276 |
2B: Nakajima (2, Seidel), Green, G (8, Seidel), Vogt (8, Webb), Moore, S (11, Sanchez, Je).
TB: Weeks, J; Barfield; Vogt 2; Green, G 3; Moore, S 2; Nakajima 2; Choice 2; Parrino.
RBI: Peterson (17), Green, G 2 (21), Weeks, J (16), Nakajima (3), Moore, S 2 (25), Barfield (3).
2-out RBI: Green, G.
Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Vogt; Weeks, J; Peterson 2; Green, G.
SF: Peterson; Nakajima; Barfield.
GIDP: Moore, S.
Team RISP: 3-for-10.
Team LOB: 9.BASERUNNING
SB: Choice (1, 2nd base off Sanchez, Je/De La Rosa, A).FIELDING
E: Nakajima (3, throw).
Nashville Sounds | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Player | Pos | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | AVG |
Scooter Gennett | 2B | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .320 |
Hainley Statia | DH | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .125 |
Caleb Gindl | LF | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .252 |
Khris Davis | RF | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .186 |
Sean Halton | 1B | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .259 |
Stephen Parker | 3B | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | .248 |
Anderson De La Rosa | C | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .296 |
Blake Davis | SS | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .207 |
Josh Prince | CF | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .157 |
Totals | 33 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 13 | .236 |
2B: De La Rosa, A (6, Billings), Halton (12, Figueroa, P).
HR: Davis, K (4, 4th inning off Billings, 0 on, 1 out).
TB: Prince; De La Rosa, A 2; Halton 2; Gennett; Davis, K 5.
RBI: Gennett (9), Davis, K (10).
Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Gindl 2; Statia; Davis, B.
SAC: Prince.
Team RISP: 0-for-8.
Team LOB: 7.FIELDING
E: Davis, K 2 (2, fielding, throw).
DP: (Gennett-Davis, B-Halton).
Sacramento River Cats | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Player | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA | |||
Bruce Billings (W, 3-2) | 6.0 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 6.10 | |||
Pedro Figueroa | 2.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 6.88 | |||
Pedro Vidal | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6.00 | |||
Totals | 9.0 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 13 | 1 | 4.92 |
Nashville Sounds | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Player | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA | |||
R.J. Seidel | 4.1 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 5.40 | |||
Travis Webb (L, 0-2) | 1.0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4.50 | |||
Jesus Sanchez | 1.2 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2.33 | |||
Francisco Rodriguez | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | |||
Tim Dillard | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0.00 | |||
Totals | 9.0 | 10 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 0 | 4.72 |
WP: Figueroa, P 2.
Balk: Figueroa, P.
Pitches-strikes: Billings 102-73, Figueroa, P 49-30, Vidal 12-7, Seidel 85-51, Webb 24-14, Sanchez, Je 55-30, Rodriguez, Fr 15-8, Dillard 18-10.
Groundouts-flyouts: Billings 8-1, Figueroa, P 1-0, Vidal 1-1, Seidel 4-2, Webb 0-0, Sanchez, Je 0-3, Rodriguez, Fr 3-0, Dillard 0-0.
Batters faced: Billings 25, Figueroa, P 10, Vidal 3, Seidel 20, Webb 5, Sanchez, Je 11, Rodriguez, Fr 5, Dillard 3.
Inherited runners-scored: Sanchez, Je 1-1.
Umpires: HP: Lance Barrett. 1B: Adam Schwarz. 2B: Hal Gibson III. 3B: Brian Hertzog.
Weather: 70 degrees, clear.
Wind: 4 mph, Varies.
T: 3:22.
Att: 3,601.