Nashville Sounds lose heartbreaker in the ninth 2-1 to Memphis Redbirds

Nashville Sounds Baseball

Redbirds Plate Two In Bottom Of Ninth To Steal 2-1 Victory

Memphis, TN – The Memphis Redbirds plated two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to steal a 2-1 victory against the Nashville Sounds on Monday evening at AutoZone Park in the opener of a four-game series.

The late Memphis rally, which came against Donovan Hand in his second inning of work in the contest, erased a chance for top Milwaukee Brewers prospect Jimmy Nelson to pick up his league-leading 11th victory following another brilliant pitching performance.

Nelson, who took a no-decision following his 16th quality outing in 17 trips to the hill for Nashville this season, extended his scoreless innings streak to 22 with seven scoreless frames, limiting Memphis to four hits while walking two and striking out four during his 83-pitch effort.

The right-hander lowered his league-leading ERA to 1.46 with his seven goose eggs in the contest.

Nashville (48-48) fell to 18-26 in road games this season as it suffered its eighth last at-bat loss. The Sounds have held a lead in 18 of their 26 road defeats.

Shortstop Hector Gomez, who went 2-for-4 to extend his season-best hitting streak to seven games, broke up a scoreless deadlock in the top of the sixth when his one-out RBI single followed Elian Herrera’s hustle double on a ball up the middle. Gomez is batting .433 (13-for-30) over his hit streak.

Memphis starter Zach Petrick matched Nelson’s effort with an outstanding outing of his own. The right-hander held the Sounds to just one run on six hits while fanning six in his seven frames of action.

The Sounds missed chances to add an insurance run in the eighth and ninth against Memphis reliever Eric Fornataro, stranding a runner in scoring position in each frame as the right-hander kept it a 1-0 game.

Hand (1-5) worked around a pair of baserunners in a scoreless eighth before running into trouble in the ninth, when he suffered a blown save and took the loss.

Xavier Scruggs led off the Memphis ninth with a single and advanced to second when Greg Garcia laid down a bunt that was mishandled by first baseman Matt Clark, allowing both runners to remain safe on the play. Pinch-hitter Jermaine Curtis followed with a ground ball deep in the hole at second base, where Pete Orr attempted to make a play at the plate but his throw was late as Scruggs hustled in with the tying run.

After an Audry Perez grounder erased Garcia at the plate, Luis Mateo ended the game with an RBI infield single that gave Memphis a 2-1 win.

The teams continue the series with a 7:02pm matchup on Tuesday. Right-hander Taylor Jungmann (4-5, 5.55) will toe the slab for the Sounds to face Memphis southpaw John Gast (2-2, 9.43).

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