Nashville, TN – The Nashville Sounds held off a late Worcester Red Sox rally and earned a 5-3 win on Wednesday night at First Horizon Park. The Sounds piled up a season-high five extra base hits in the win, including a pair of doubles by Luis Lara as the Brewers no. 12-rated prospect collected his second straight three-hit game and fifth overall of the season.
Worcester jumped out to the early lead with the help of a pair of two-out walks issued by Logan Henderson. The Brewers no. 7-rated prospect also allowed a RBI single before getting out of the opening half inning with a strikeout. Nashville’s bats immediately picked him up when Jett Williams started the home half of the ballgame with a leadoff triple before scoring on Cooper Pratt’s first Triple-A extra-base hit, a RBI double to the opposite field.
Henderson proceeded to retire the WooSox in order in the second with a pair of strikeouts before sitting down the first two in the top of the third. The right-hander worked himself out of a little bit of trouble to end his outing after allowing his second hit and a third walk to leave two stranded in his third and final inning of work.
Following a leadoff walk and a Freddy Zamora single in the bottom of the second, Pratt drew a two-out walk to keep the Sounds at the plate. Lara ensured the Sounds wouldn’t squander the bases loaded situation with a two RBI single to make it a 3-1 Sounds advantage.
That lead grew in the fourth inning when Williams drew a walk and swiped second to put himself in scoring position for Pratt, who made it a multi-hit and RBI game with a single off Jacob Webb. Lara added a multi-hit game of his own, his seventh in 15 games, with a double off the right field wall. Jeferson Quero’s sacrifice fly extended the Sounds lead to 5-1 through the fourth.
Joe Corbett worked 1.2 scoreless and hitless innings in relief of Henderson with two strikeouts to help negate two walks issued. Brian Fitzpatrick was called on to get the final out of the top of the fifth and did just that with a three-pitch strikeout of Kristian Campbell to extend his scoreless innings streak to 7.2 IP and seven straight games to begin his season.
The Sounds were unable to capitalize on their second bases loaded scoring opportunity of the game following back-to-back hit by pitches and a walk with one out in the bottom of the fifth. Kyle Keller stranded all three Nashville runners with a strikeout and groundout to keep the WooSox deficit to just four runs.
Drew Rom worked himself into trouble with a single allowed to the first batter he faced in the sixth before walking consecutive Worcester batters to load the bases. The Nashville left-hander exchanged a run for an out after inducing a ground ball before re-loading the bases with his third walk of the inning. He responded with back-to-back strikeouts to limit the damage to just the lone run and keep it a three-run Sounds advantage.
After a quiet seventh, the WooSox cut into Nashville’s lead with a run off of Blake Holub in the top of the eighth. The right-hander looked poised to escape completely unscathed after allowing consecutive singles to start the inning after Braiden Ward grounded into a double play and Matt Thaiss was called out at second for runner interference. However, a flared single over an outstretched Pratt made it 5-3 in favor of Nashville. Will Childers entered the game in relief of Holub and got the final out of the top of the eighth.
Lara made it back-to-back three-hit games with his second double of the game but was left stranded as Childers headed back to the mound in the ninth to face the heart of the WooSox order. He followed a leadoff single with a strikeout before issuing a walk to put runners on first and second.
A groundout landed runners on the corners and sent Thaiss to the plate to serve as the potential go-ahead run. After swinging 3-0 and lacing a ball just foul with home run distance, Childers got him to pop out to Williams in foul territory down the third base line to secure his third save of the season and preserve Nashville’s 5-3 win.
The Nashville Sounds will look to make it three straight wins to begin the series on Thursday night. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35pm CT.
