Nashville Sounds lose to Memphis Redbirds 6-2

Memphis, TN – The Nashville Sounds suffered a 6-2 defeat at the hands of the cross-state rival Memphis Redbirds on Friday evening at Auto Zone Park.

Nashville (32-57) out-hit Memphis, 11-7, in the loss, but the Sounds gave up more than three runs to the Redbirds for the first time in the clubs’ 10 meetings this season.

Following a 34-minute rain delay, Scooter Gennett (2-for-5) opened the contest with a single, giving him hits in each of his 10 games since rejoining the Sounds from Milwaukee. He is batting .410 (16-for-39) over that stretch.

Hainley Statia, a late addition to the Nashville lineup following the scratch of Khris Davis, gave the Sounds a 1-0 lead in the top of the third when he went yard for the first time in nearly two years, pulling a Carlos Martinez offering down the right field line for a solo homer. It was the utilityman’s first longball in 619 at-bats, dating back to July 30, 2011.

The Sounds later loaded the bases with two outs in the frame against Martinez but the right-hander induced an inning-ending groundout from Blake Lalli to avoid further damage. Caleb Gindl (2-for-3) doubled during the inning to extend his longest hitting streak of the year to eight games (13-for-29, .448).

Memphis jumped into the lead in the fourth with back-to-back home runs off Zach Kroenke, who hadn’t allowed a hit in the first three frames.

Greg Garcia started the Redbirds’ fourth by reaching on a throwing error by Sounds shortstop Blake Davis. Two batters later, Jamie Romak belted his 17th home run of the year, a two-run shot to left that gave the home team a 2-1 advantage. Jermaine Curtis followed by driving a 2-0 Kroenke offering over the left field wall for his fourth big fly of the year, making it a 3-1 contest.

Martinez (3-2) earned the win for Memphis after holding the Sounds to one run on six hits in his 5 1/3 innings of work.

The Redbirds extended their lead to 5-1 in the bottom of the sixth on left fielder Chris Swauger’s two-out, two-run double to left-center off Kroenke (4-11), who suffered his league-leading 11th loss after allowing five runs (four earned) on five hits over six innings.

After Memphis added another run in the seventh on a sacrifice fly, Hunter Morris (2-for-5) led off the eighth inning with a solo homer to left off Mitchell Boggs, the slugger’s team-leading 17th big fly of the year. Morris has hit safely in 11 of his last 12 games at a .318 clip (14-for-44).

The Tennessee rivals square off again at 7:05 p.m. on Saturday night. Right-hander R.J. Seidel (1-3, 5.72) will man the bump for the Sounds and face Memphis southpaw Nick Additon (5-4, 4.36).

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