Nashville Sounds
Nashville, TN – Steve Lombardozzi’s walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth inning lifted the Nashville Sounds to a 3-2 win over the Oklahoma City Dodgers in front of 7,105 fans at First Tennessee Park Monday afternoon.
Lombardozzi hit the first pitch he saw from Adam Liberatore down the left field line and off the wall to easily score Jake Smolinski from third. The inning began with a sharp single to left field by Smolinski and continued when Beau Taylor was hit by a Liberatore pitch.
Sheldon Neuse dropped down a sacrifice bunt to put runners at second and third with one out.
The Dodgers elected to intentionally walk pinch-hitter Josh Phegley to load the bases for Lombardozzi who delivered Nashville’s fifth walk-off winner of the season.
The Sounds’ offense was stuck in neutral for most of the afternoon. Trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the fourth, Nashville took advantage of two walks and an error to even the game at 2-2.
Chris Bassitt gave the Sounds a quality start with six solid innings. He allowed two runs on eight hits in his first start back since being optioned by Oakland. He stuck out a season-high eight batters in a no-decision.
The bullpen combination of Josh Lucas and Bobby Wahl kept it a 2-2 game in the late innings. Lucas threw two scoreless innings before turning it over to Wahl who pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to set up the walk-off in the bottom half of the inning.
The fifth and final game of the series is scheduled for Tuesday night at First Tennessee Park. Left-hander Eric Jokisch (1-5, 5.01) starts for the Sounds against right-hander Dennis Santana (1-1, 2.45) for the Dodgers. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35pm.
Post-Game Notes
With today’s 3-2 win, the Sounds improved to 26-24 on the season.
Today’s walk-off was the fifth of the season for Nashville. It was the second time Lombardozzi was involved as he scored the winning run on April 26th vs. New Orleans.
The Sounds improved to 11-4 in one-run games.
Nashville pitcher Chris Bassitt notched his first quality start (6 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 K) of the season and the 11th for Sounds pitchers in the month of May.
The 2018 season is the Sounds’ 41st in franchise history and fourth as the Oakland Athletics’ top affiliate. Single-game tickets are available now by calling 615.690.4487 or by visiting www.nashvillesounds.com
