Nashville, TN – The Nashville Sounds got some early offense and rode the right arm of Logan Henderson to a 5-1 win over the Gwinnett Stripers on Thursday night to end a four-game losing streak.
After striking out eight in his season debut Saturday night against Jacksonville, Henderson was right back to it on Thursday against the Stripers. The Brewers’ no. 13-ranked prospect struck out the first man he faced in his second start and then worked around a pair of walks and single to leave the bases loaded with another strikeout and fly out to escape the first unscathed. He left two more stranded in the second after issuing his third free pass but also collecting his third strikeout of the evening.
Nashville’s bats came alive in the third. With two outs in the inning, the Sounds rattled off four straight hits starting with Caleb Durbin’s third double of the season. Ernesto Martinez Jr. put the Sounds on the board with a two-RBI single to the opposite field and Jorge Alfaro’s second hit of the year was a two-run home run to give Nashville a 4-0 lead for Henderson to work with.
The right-hander picked up another strikeout in the third and then struck out the side in the fourth. His eighth strikeout came in the bottom of the fifth during his final inning of work in which he played a part in all three outs. After allowing a leadoff single, he struck out Sean Murphy, got an assist on a caught stealing, and then covered first base for the 3-1 putout to bring an end to his outing.
Wes Clarke made it 5-0 in the top of the sixth with his first RBI of the season. Raynel Delgado doubled and advanced to third on a wild pitch for Clarke to earn the RBI on a sac fly. Sam McWilliams worked a three-up-three down bottom of the sixth on just eight pitches including a pair of three pitch strikeouts. Left-hander Tyler Jay entered the game in the seventh after McWilliams allowed a leadoff single and proceeded to retire each of the next three batters.
Vinny Nittoli relieved Jay to start the eighth and allowed a leadoff double to Chandler Seagle in his first plate appearance of the night after taking over for Sean Murphy behind the plate. Nittoli was on his way to pitching around it until miscommunication by three converging Sounds defensively led to an error and the Stripers only run of the game. Nittoli made quick work of the three Gwinnett batters in the bottom of the ninth to help preserve the win for Nashville.
The Nashville Sounds will aim to even the series on Friday night. First pitch is scheduled for 6:05pm with the Sounds set to face RHP Spencer Strider making his second rehab appearance for Gwinnett.
