Lawrenceville, GA – After both starter pitchers dominated early, the Nashville Sounds (35-33) lost a nail-biter to the Gwinnett Stripers (33-35), 4-3, in extra innings on Saturday night at Coolray Field.
The game started with both starting pitchers working quickly through the early innings. Chad Patrick went through his first four innings with ease and allowed just two hits. Dylan Dodd matched Patrick’s excellence with only one hit allowed through his first four.
But in the top of the fifth, Wes Clarke reached on a leadoff single and Eric Haase mashed a 435-foot two-run home run to break the scoreless tie. Gwinnett answered in the bottom of the fifth with a two-out base knock and a two-run home run to tie the game at two. Patrick allowed the final three hitters he faced to reach base and was replaced just one out away from his seventh quality start.
The latter innings saw little action except for in the bottom of the seventh. Ryan Middendorf had a key strikeout with a runner on third to end the frame without any damage done. Middendorf and Kevin Herget combined for 3 1/3 scoreless innings with two hits allowed and three strikeouts.
Haase continued to carry the Nashville offense with his third RBI of the game to give the Sounds a 3-2 lead in the top of the 10th. After a sacrifice bunt by Yonny Hernández put Haase in scoring position, they were unable to plate him and went to the bottom of the inning with a one-run lead.
Harold Chirino (1-2) entered with the ghost runner on second base in the bottom of the tenth. After a Forrest Wall single tied it up, Chirino walked in the winning run to end the game.
The Sounds and Stripers will play the series finale tomorrow afternoon. Left-hander Aaron Ashby (1-3, 7.40) will be on the bump for Nashville. He will face off against right-hander Grant Holmes (3-2, 2.63) for Gwinnett. The first pitch is scheduled for 12:05pm central time at Coolray Field.
Post-Game Notes
- Eric Haase accounted for all three runs driven in for Nashville. In June, Haase is hitting .424 (14-for-33) with 11 runs scored, six RBI and a 1.173 OPS.
- Chad Patrick (5.2 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K) had his eighth consecutive outing with at least 5 innings pitched and three or fewer earned runs allowed. In June, Patrick has 23 strikeouts in 18 1/3 innings with a 1.96 ERA. Before today, Patrick had picked up the win in his last five outings.
- Eric Haase and Yonny Hernández had two hits each, but Nashville had just six for the whole game. The Sounds have scored just three runs in their last 19 innings.
- Nashville is now 5-3 in extra-innings and all three losses have occurred in the last two series. It is the first time that the Sounds have lost in an extra-inning walk off since July 22nd, 2023 at Jacksonville.
The Nashville Sounds are the Triple-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers and play at First Horizon Park. Single-game tickets and season ticket memberships for the remainder of the 2024 season are on sale now.
For more information, call 615.690.4487 or e-mail tickets@nashvillesounds.com.