Nashville Sounds Baseball
Nashville, TN – Tacoma outfielder Jabari Blash homered for the third straight game to power the visiting Rainiers to a 4-3 victory over the Nashville Sounds on Sunday afternoon at Greer Stadium.
The Sounds (38-33) suffered their third straight loss to Tacoma despite out-hitting the Rainiers, 11-6, on the afternoon.
Tacoma took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning as a two-out walk came back to haunt Sounds starter Ariel Pena.
The Rainiers doubled the lead to 2-0 in the second. Xavier Avery drew a one-out walk, stole a pair of bases, and scored on Abraham Almonte’s RBI single. Almonte finished 3-for-5 on the afternoon.
Pena lasted only three innings, tossing 85 pitches while matching a Sounds season high with six walks allowed. He gave up two runs on two hits and struck out five.
Nashville knotted the score at 2-2 in the home half of the fourth against Tacoma starter Forrest Snow. Sean Halton led off with a double, moved to third on Hunter Morris’ single, and scored the Sounds’ first run on a throwing error by Rainiers catcher Jesus Sucre. After advancing to third on a Hector Gomez single, Morris plated the tying run on a Taylor Green groundout.
Blash continued his monster series when he homered for the third straight game in the top of the seventh, belting a 434-foot homer over the neck of the guitar scoreboard in left-center to give the visitors a 4-2 cushion. The two-run blast off Arcenio Leon, which also plated Franklin (walk), was the slugger’s team-leading 12th of the year.
Leon (0-1) suffered the loss after surrendering the go-ahead homer.
The Sounds mounted a rally in the ninth against Rainiers reliever Brandon Maurer. Gomez singled with one out and later scored on pinch-hitter Pete Orr’s two-out single to right to pull Nashville within a run at 4-3. With the potential tying run on first, Maurer recovered to retire Jeff Bianchi on a game-ending groundout to close out the victory and earn his third save of the year.
The Sounds will look to avoid a sweep when the teams wrap up the four-game set with a 7:05pm finale on Monday evening. PCL ERA leader Jimmy Nelson (7-1, 1.51) will toe the slab for the Sounds to face Tacoma right-hander Andrew Carraway (2-4, 4.99).
Box Score
June 15, 2014
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tacoma Rainiers | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 2 |
| Nashville Sounds | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 11 | 0 |
| Tacoma | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | LOB | AVG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taylor, C, 2B | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | .349 |
| Almonte, A, CF | 5 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .234 |
| Choi, J, 1B | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | .371 |
| Franklin, SS | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | .318 |
| Kelly, T, DH | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | .266 |
| Blash, RF | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | .236 |
| Noriega, 3B | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | .335 |
| Sucre, C | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | .250 |
| Avery, LF | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | .274 |
| Snow, P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Ruffin, P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Maurer, P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Totals | 32 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 10 | 10 | 23 | .280 |
| BATTING 2B: Franklin (9, Pena, A). HR: Blash (12, 7th inning off Leon, Ar, 1 on, 1 out). TB: Noriega; Blash 4; Almonte, A 3; Franklin 2. RBI: Franklin (28), Almonte, A (12), Blash 2 (37). 2-out RBI: Franklin. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Noriega 2; Kelly, T 2; Avery 2; Sucre. GIDP: Noriega. Team RISP: 2-for-8. Team LOB: 12.BASERUNNING SB: Avery 2 (23, 2nd base off Pena, A/Diaz, R, 3rd base off Pena, A/Diaz, R), Almonte, A (4, 2nd base off Pena, A/Diaz, R), Noriega (2, 2nd base off Leon, Ar/Diaz, R).FIELDING E: Snow (1, pickoff), Sucre (2, pickoff). DP: (Franklin-Taylor, C-Choi, J). |
||||||||
| Nashville | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | LOB | AVG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bianchi, 2B | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | .281 |
| Velez, DH | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .307 |
| Hermida, RF | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | .251 |
| Halton, LF | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .267 |
| Morris, H, 1B | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | .275 |
| Gindl, CF | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .260 |
| Gomez, H, SS | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .258 |
| Green, T, 3B | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | .238 |
| Diaz, R, C | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .230 |
| a-Orr, PH | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .283 |
| Pena, A, P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .071 |
| Heckathorn, P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .400 |
| Leon, Ar, P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Leach, P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Totals | 37 | 3 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 17 | .256 |
| a-Singled for Diaz, R in the 9th. | ||||||||
| BATTING 2B: Halton (12, Snow). TB: Velez 2; Hermida; Gomez, H 3; Orr; Halton 2; Gindl 2; Morris, H. RBI: Green, T (18), Orr (19). 2-out RBI: Orr. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Halton; Diaz, R 2; Morris, H 2. GIDP: Green, T. Team RISP: 3-for-11. Team LOB: 7.BASERUNNING SB: Velez (15, 2nd base off Snow/Sucre).FIELDING DP: (Gomez, H-Bianchi-Morris, H). |
||||||||
| Tacoma | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Snow | 5.0 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1.80 |
| Ruffin (W, 3-3) | 3.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5.71 |
| Maurer (S, 3) | 1.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.77 |
| Totals | 9.0 | 11 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 4.75 |
| Nashville | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pena, A | 3.0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 4.27 |
| Heckathorn | 3.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 6.89 |
| Leon, Ar (L, 0-1) | 2.0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5.40 |
| Leach | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2.48 |
| Totals | 9.0 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 10 | 10 | 1 | 3.38 |
Pitches-strikes: Snow 75-56, Ruffin 26-19, Maurer 20-14, Pena, A 85-44, Heckathorn 46-27, Leon, Ar 42-28, Leach 10-5.
Groundouts-flyouts: Snow 4-3, Ruffin 4-1, Maurer 3-0, Pena, A 2-0, Heckathorn 4-1, Leon, Ar 2-2, Leach 1-0.
Batters faced: Snow 23, Ruffin 9, Maurer 5, Pena, A 18, Heckathorn 12, Leon, Ar 10, Leach 3.
Umpires: HP: Jeff Morrow. 1B: Ryan Goodman. 3B: Nick Bailey.
Weather: 90 degrees, partly cloudy.
Wind: 7 mph, R to L.
T: 3:08.
Att: 4,297.
Venue: Herschel Greer Stadium.
June 15, 2014
