Nashville Sounds silence New Orleans Baby Cakes in homestand opening win

Nashville Sounds

Nashville, TN – The Nashville Sounds used a solid pitching performance from Brett Anderson and timely hitting to dispatch the New Orleans Baby Cakes, 4-2, Wednesday night in front of 6,063 fans at First Tennessee Park.

Anderson tossed six innings and allowed two runs in his first win of the season. The southpaw allowed a pair of runs in the second inning, then went on cruise control the rest of the night. Anderson ended the second by getting Magneuris Sierra to bounce into a fielder’s choice. It started a streak of 13 consecutive retired batters.

Trailing 2-1 into the sixth, the Sounds tallied a pair of runs in the home half of the frame to put Anderson in line for the win. Franklin Barreto was hit by a pitch and Anthony Garcia reached on an error by third baseman Eric Campbell. Both came back to hurt New Orleans when Josh Phegley delivered a two-strike, two-out, two-run single to give Nashville a 3-2 lead.

The Sounds added to the lead in the seventh thanks to speedster Jorge Mateo. The shortstop ripped a one-out triple to the gap in right-center, then scored when BJ Boyd lifted a sacrifice fly to left field to make it a 4-2 game.

Danny Coulombe relieved Anderson and tossed two scoreless innings in relief. Kyle Finnegan slammed the door in the ninth to earn his first save of the season.

The five-game series continues Thursday night at First Tennessee Park. Left-hander Eric Jokisch (0-3, 5.63) starts for Nashville against right-hander Joe Gunkel (0-0, 1.13) for New Orleans. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35pm.

Post-Game Notes

• The Sounds improved to 10-9 on the season with tonight’s 4-2 win.
• Nashville is now 4-2 in series-opening games and improved their First Tennessee Park record to 6-2 on the season.
• Jorge Mateo’s seventh inning triple was Nashville’s first triple of the season. They were the only team in the Pacific Coast League to not have at least one triple going into today’s action.
• Nashville’s Brett Anderson made his fourth start of the season and picked up his first win. Anderson notched the team’s third quality start in 2018 (6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K).
• BJ Boyd’s had his 12-game on-base streak and 8-game hitting streak come to an end.