Nashville, TN – After being held scoreless through six innings, the Nashville Sounds made a late push with the game’s final three runs and had the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the ninth in a 5-3 loss to Gwinnett on Wednesday night.
A combined pitching effort kept the Stripers off the scoreboard for the final five-plus innings to give the Sounds a chance at the late rally. Brewers no. 7-rated prospect Jeferson Quero recorded two of the five hits for Nashville, including his sixth home run of the season.
Right-hander Quinn Priester’s fifth rehab start with Nashville ended in the top of the first after 38 pitches, two hits, three runs, three walks, and a strikeout. Kaleb Bowman earned the final out of the opening half inning to strand two runners and send Nashville to their first at-bats in a three-run hole. Bowman worked around a one-out walk in the top of the second to strand another and picked off DaShawn Keirsey Jr. to end the top of the third after reaching via the second Sounds error of the night.
Quero chopped a single through the left side of the Stripers infield in the top of the second and Eddys Leonard drew a walk in the third as the only two Nashville hitters to reach base the first time through the order against Owen Murphy. JB Bukauskas relieved Bowman in the top of the fourth and issued three straight free passes to begin his outing as Gwinnett drew their seventh walk of the game.
Bukauskas picked up a strikeout before inducing a pop out for two quick outs with the bases still loaded. Brett Wisley hit a one-hop comebacker off Bukauskas that brought home the fourth Gwinnett run and an end to his night with Junior Fernandez taking over on the mound after Bukauskas exited the field with the trainer. The Stripers added to their lead on a balk before Fernandez got the final out of the inning to strand two and keep it a 5-0 deficit despite just three Gwinnett hits.
Murphy worked his second 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the fourth to keep the Sounds bats at bay while Fernandez made quick work of Gwinnett in the top of the fifth with a pair of strikeouts and a ground out. Will Childers became the fourth Nashville reliever used when he took over in the top of the sixth and tossed the second straight clean half inning for the Sounds in his only inning of work. Blake Holub pitched the seventh and extended it to 10 straight Gwinnett batters retired after allowing the fifth run of the night in the fourth inning.
Akil Baddoo laced a single in the bottom of the seventh to end a run of 13 straight Sounds batters retired for Murphy and 21 combined batters between the two teams. Quero added his second hit and got the Sounds on the scoreboard with a two-run home run to left field and chased the Braves no. 5-rated prospect out of the game after 6.2 IP with three hits and two runs allowed with eight strikeouts. Holub was back to the mound and saw the run of 12 straight Gwinnett batters retired end with a Jose Azocar two-out double into right-center field. The right-hander ended the inning with a line out hauled in by Luis Lara in right field.
Nashville drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the eighth, but a double play and ground out sent Jacob Waguespack to the mound in the top of the ninth trying to keep it a three-run deficit. He did just that with a pair of strikeouts to work around a one-out walk and send the Sounds to the plate in the bottom of the ninth chasing three runs and the top of the order due up.
Brewers no. 4-rated prospect Cooper Pratt extended his on-base streak to 17 straight games with a one-out single, and Lara poked a ground-rule double into the left field corner to send Baddoo to the plate as the tying run. He scored Pratt with a sacrifice fly to right to make it 5-3 and put Quero in the batter’s box. The Brewers no. 7-rated prospect went down swinging as Gwinnett hung on to even the series.
The Sounds and Stripers will continue the series on Thursday night with Brewers. No. 17-rated prospect Tyson Hardin (1-0, 1.42 ERA) set to make his third Triple-A start. First pitch from First Horizon Park is set for 6:35pm CT.
