Memphis, TN – The Nashville Sounds dropped the series finale on Sunday afternoon to the Memphis Redbirds 7-3. Right-hander Brandon Sproat took the loss in his Sounds debut, allowing six earned over 4.0 IP while the Sounds offense was held to just four hits and ended the Redbirds shutout bid with three runs in the eighth inning.
The Redbirds got to Sproat early as Nolan Gorman hit his third home run of the series on a two-out solo blast in the bottom of the first inning. The Nashville right-hander pitched around a two-out walk in the second. Three straight singles started the bottom of the third inning against Sproat as the Redbirds tacked another run to their lead. A successful double steal set up two in scoring position for Sproat and the Sounds to navigate. He did just that with a pair of strikeouts to strand two and limit the damage for the time being.
Nashville was held without a hit by Ixan Henderson over 4.2 IP of his Triple-A debut on Sunday. Henderson issued four walks without a strikeout and came an out shy of qualifying for the win in his debut for the Redbirds (4.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 0 K).
Nashville unraveled in the fourth inning, allowing the Redbirds to build a 6-0 advantage after four singles, a fielder’s choice where everyone was safe, an error, walk, three stolen bases, and a wild pitch in a busy half inning that was the last for Sproat. The eight hits allowed were a season-high, and the six runs were the most he had surrendered since his first start of the season with the Brewers where he allowed seven runs to the White Sox on March 29th.
Will Childers (1.0 IP, H, BB) and Thomas Pannone (2.0 IP, H, K) each had scoreless appearances out of the bullpen for Nashville. For Childers, it was his fourth straight scoreless appearance since rejoining the Sounds after a five-game stint with Double-A Biloxi. Pannone made his first overall appearance since July 29 with the Brewers and first with Nashville since July 21 in Sugar Land. It was just the second relief appearance for Pannone this season, and both have been scoreless outings (5.2 IP, 3 H, 4 K, BB).
Eduardo Garcia accounted for half of Nashville’s hits in the finale, going 2-for-3 with a run scored. After singles for Garcia and Sal Frelick put runners on the corners in the top of the eighth, Brock Wilken ended the Memphis shutout bid with a sac fly. Akil Baddoo walked his way aboard, joining Frelick on base for Luke Adams’ at-bat. The Brewers no. 13-rated prospect doubled home both for his ninth multi-RBI game of the season to make it 6-3. The Redbirds answered with a run in the bottom of eighth off Grant Anderson to push their lead back to four.
The Nashville Sounds will return to First Horizon Park for the start of a six-game series against the Indianapolis Indians (Triple-A, Pittsburgh Pirates) for the first and only matchup between the two teams this season. The series begins Tuesday, August 11th, with first pitch scheduled for 6:35pm.
