Nashville, TN – The Nashville Sounds took control of the series with a 9-8 win over the Memphis Redbirds on Saturday night. After seeing an 8-1 lead evaporate in the sixth inning, Jorge Alfaro’s home run in the ninth lifted Nashville to victory.Two of the three hits Garrett Stallings allowed on Saturday night came in the bottom of the first inning as Memphis jumped out to a 1-0 lead. The game would remain that way into the fifth until the Sounds used a four-run fifth inning to take the lead.
All of the damage was done with two outs in the inning. Raynel Delgado and Andrew Vaughn collected the only hits of the inning for Nashville who drew four walks in the frame including a pair with the bases loaded to build the lead.
Stallings ended his outing with a three-up, three-down bottom of the fifth to send the offense right back to work. It was another four-run inning for Nashville who this time used four hits and got RBI singles from Jared Oliva, Jeferson Quero, Vaughn, and Alfaro to make it 8-1.
Memphis rallied with seven runs in the bottom of the sixth, climbing all the way back on five hits and scoring five two-out runs of their own off Tyler Jay and Joel Payamps in the inning. Elvin Rodriguez worked 1.2 IP without allowing a hit and worked around a pair of walks in the seventh inning to leave both stranded before pitching a clean bottom of the eighth.
Alfaro’s home run in the ninth inning came with one-out in the inning to break the tie. Freddy Zamora and Delgado added two-out singles to keep the inning alive but were unable to add any additional insurance for Blake Holub. The right-hander didn’t need any though, bookending his second save of the year with strikeouts in a 1-2-3 ninth.
The Sounds and Redbirds will wrap up their series on Sunday with the Sounds aiming for the series win. It’ll be a pitching rematch from the series opener with RHP Logan Henderson (7-3, 3.12 ERA) going up against the Redbirds and Michael McGreevy (8-1, 2.28 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 1:05pm.
