Nashville Sounds take down Memphis Redbirds, 9-7

Nashville, TN – The Nashville Sounds gave Manager Rick Sweet a win on his 69^th birthday, a 9-7 decision over the Memphis Redbirds on Tuesday night at First Horizon Park. It was Sweet’s 2,088^th win as a minor league manager.

A six-run bottom of the third inning for Nashville was the highlight of the night. Trailing 3-1 entering the frame, the Sounds sent 10 batters to plate and got run-scoring hits from four different players.

Mario Feliciano plated the first two runs of the inning to even the game at 3-3 with a sharp single to left field. Pitcher Dylan File followed and helped himself when he dumped a run-scoring single into right-center to give Nashville a 4-3 lead. Jamie Westbrook’s two-run single made it a 6-3 game and Dustin Peterson’s RBI single capped the scoring in the inning and gave the Sounds a 7-3 lead.

Memphis did not go quietly the rest of the night and pulled within a pair of runs multiple times. A solo home run by Juan Yepez made it 7-4 in the sixth and a run-scoring groundout by Yepez pulled the Redbirds within two runs at 7-5 in the seventh.

Tim Lopes supplied the Sounds with some breathing room when he drilled an opposite-field two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh. Lopes’ 11^th home run of the season made it a 9-5 game, but the Redbirds answered again.

Brendan Donovan trimmed the deficit to two runs in the top of the eighth when he launched a two-run homer off Nashville reliever Blaine Hardy. Luke Barker relieved Hardy with two outs and got out of the inning.

The Sounds loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the eighth, but it didn’t come back to hurt when Barker worked a 1-2-3 top of the ninth to notch his 10^th save of the season.

Game two of the six-game series is scheduled for Wednesday night at First Horizon Park. Right-hander Josh Lindblom (4-3, 2.77) starts for Nashville against left-hander Zack Thompson (2-7, 6.61) for Memphis. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

Post-Game Notes

• The Sounds improved to 33-22 at home…41-17 when scoring first…46-12 when scoring at least 4 runs…28-8 when recording 10+ hits…43-21 when hitting a home run.
• Nashville scored six runs in the third inning – the ninth time they have scored at least six runs in an inning this year.
• Brice Turang (3-for-5, 2 R, 2 2B), Jamie Westbrook (3-for-5, R, 2 RBI) and Dustin Peterson (3-for-5, RBI) had three-hit games while Matt Lipka and Mario Feliciano had two hits apiece. 
• Luke Barker notched his 10^th save of the season, the second time in his career reaching double digits in a season (20 in 2018).

Box Score

Memphis 7, Nashville 9

The Nashville Sounds are the Triple-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers and play at First Horizon Park. Single-game tickets are on sale now for all remaining 2021 home games. For more information call 615.690.4487 or e-mail tickets@nashvillesounds.com.­­