Nashville, TN – The Nashville Sounds scored three unanswered runs in the bottom of the seventh inning and secured five-of-the-six games this week against the Gwinnett Stripers, including Sunday’s series finale 4-3 victory at First Horizon Park. Three crucial RBI by Luis Lara, Freddy Zamora and Ramón RodrÃguez got past the Stripers in the seventh inning and held on for the win.
The Stripers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the second inning after a quiet opening frame as three hits drove home two runs off starting pitcher Garrett Stallings. Nashville got on the board as Luis Matos ripped his second homer of the season with a solo blast to left field and cut the Stripers lead to 2-1 heading into the third inning.
Stallings ended his day tossing four efficient innings, allowing two runs on five hits and striking out five batters in the process and added a 1-2-3 inning. Major League Rehabber Jared Koenig entered the game for the Sounds in the top of the fifth inning and worked around a single to get out of the frame, facing just four batters.
Junior Fernández took the reins from Koenig in the top of the sixth inning and tossed 1-2-3 frame. He came back out for the seventh inning but allowed two hits and a run to score as the Stripers lead grew to 3-1. The Sounds stormed back and earned their first lead in the bottom half of the seventh as Cooper Pratt started the inning with a leadoff single extending his on-base streak to 21 consecutive games as well.
After Pratt stole his 13th bag of the season, Lara ripped a single into right field and scored Pratt for the 3-2 deficit. Gwinnett’s Hunter Stratton loaded the bases and issuing back-to-back walks to Matos and Jeferson Quero. RodrÃguez followed by grounding into a double play, but he was still able to score the tying run by Lara. Zamora followed by ripping an RBI-single into right center, his second straight game with an RBI, and gave the Sounds the 4-3 lead.
Craig Yoho and Blake Holub came in and tossed an inning each to close out the Stripers and win the game 4-3. Yoho worked another frame without allowing an earned run, his 12th consecutive game, and ended a 1-2-3 inning eighth. Holub secured his third save of the season as he worked around a leadoff walk and closed it out on back-to-back groundouts and a fly out.
With Monday off, the Nashville Sounds will head to Jacksonville to take on the Jumbo Shrimp (Triple-A, Miami Marlins) in a six-game series from June 2nd-7th. The first game of the series will begin on Tuesday and first pitch is slated to start at 6:05pm.
