Nashville Sounds slam Sacramento River Cats, 11-4

Tie Franchise Doubles Mark in the Win

Sacramento, CA – The Nashville Sounds won their third straight game over Sacramento, routing the River Cats 11-4 at Raley Field on Wednesday night.

The Sounds roughed up San Francisco Giants rehabbing starter Jake Peavy early and often on the night. Jason Pridie hit his team-leading 5th homer of the season to start the second inning, smacking the 2007 NL Cy Young Award winner’s pitch off the right field foul pole.

The following batter, Kent Matthes hit his 16th double of the season. He then scored on a Bryan Anderson ground-rule double on the very next pitch and the Sounds led 2-0. Anderson and the Sounds were just getting started.

Nashville kept the pressure on Peavy the following inning. Consecutive singles from Craig Gentry, Joey Wendle and Ryan Roberts to start the inning put the Sounds up 3-0. Pridie popped up and Matthes walked, loading the bases for Anderson.

The former River Cat grounded one down the first base line for his second double in as many at bats and two more came in for Nashville.

The Sounds finally chased the 3x all-star from the game in the top of the 5th inning. Roberts walked and Pridie doubled to get two men in scoring position with no outs. Matthes flied out to right, but Juan Perez threw a strike to get Roberts out at the plate and suddenly it appeared the Sounds might not get anything. Anderson, however had other ideas. The Sounds catcher hit his third consecutive double to score Pridie for his fourth RBI of the game.

The Sounds continued their offensive assault in the seventh inning. Thanks to three doubles, two walks and a single the Sounds pushed across five runs in the frame to go up 11-1. The last double of the inning – an opposite field liner by Niuman Romero – tied a Sounds franchise record for doubles in a game with eight. The Sounds have reached that mark six times in their history and had last accomplished that feat on August 10th, 2011 at Reno.

The Sounds did see their season-high streak of scoreless innings came to an end courtesy of a Zach Neal wild pitch in the bottom of the third that plated Ronny Cedeno. The last time the Sounds had given up a run was when Fresno’s Jon Singleton hit a solo homer off Sean Doolittle to start off the bottom of the 6th inning on May 24th. In total, the streak lasted 23.2 innings.

Besides the wild pitch, Neal was masterful on the night. The right-hander needed just 86 pitches to throw seven innings, yielding four hits and striking out six. The right-hander has now won all three starts he has made this season and leads the Sounds in that stat category.

Eric O’Flaherty threw a scoreless eighth inning in his first rehab appearance since being sidelined with a shoulder injury on April 30th. Joe Paterson made his Sounds debut in the ninth and gave up three runs. The left-hander was signed on Monday after being released by Omaha on May 22nd.

The Sounds go for the sweep tomorrow at Raley Field. The Sounds have not swept a four-game set since taking all four from Reno between June 9th-12th at Greer Stadium last season. Nashville will send Brad Mills to the mound. The southpaw has compiled four straight quality starts. The River Cats will counter with Kevin Correia. First pitch is scheduled for 2:05pm.

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