Nashville, TN – The Nashville Sounds dropped their first game of the series against the Memphis Redbirds 8-3 despite outhitting the Redbirds 13-7 at First Horizon Park on Thursday night. With Nashville leading 2-1 entering the sixth, Memphis scored seven runs over the final four innings to end the Sounds’ three-game winning streak.
For the third straight game to begin the series the Nashville hit their way to an early lead. Jorge Alfaro delivered his fifth RBI in his last six games to give the Sounds a 1-0 lead after the first inning. Adam Hall doubled the advantage in the second by scoring Anthony Seigler who led off the inning with his first double of the season. Memphis crossed the plate for the first time this series with a two-out, RBI single off the bat of Michael Helman in the top of the third off right-hander Jacob Misiorowski.
Misiorowski exited the game after five innings. He allowed just two hits and added five strikeouts while walking three Memphis batters. He stranded four Redbirds on the bases and got an assist from his battery mate on a caught stealing for the third and final out in the top of the fifth in his final inning of work.
Blake Holub was the first man out of the Nashville bullpen and immediately found himself working with traffic on the bases. A leadoff walk was followed by a RBI double to even the score at 2-2. Following a wild pitch and his second walk of the inning, a double play helped limit the damage but gave the Redbirds a 3-2 lead.
Alfaro added his second hit of the ballgame with a two-out double in the home half of the sixth but was left stranded. The Redbirds added a pair of runs on two hits and were aided by two more walks in the top of the seventh inning to extend their lead to 5-2.
Seigler tripled to start the bottom of the seventh but was unable to cut into the Sounds deficit with three straight strikeouts coming after the leadoff triple and Wes Clarke’s second walk of the night. Craig Yoho worked consecutive nights after earning a one-inning save for the Sounds on Wednesday.
The Brewers no. 19-rated prosect struck out two of the three batters he was tasked to face in the eighth. Jared Oliva added a RBI to cut the Redbirds lead to two runs on a sac fly in the home half of the eighth.
The Redbirds ended the game’s scoring with three more in the ninth. Jimmy Crooks hit his second home run of the season and gave himself a six-RBI night with his three-run homer off Vinny Nittoli. A pair of Nashville singles were all they could get in the ninth in their attempt at a late rally.
The Nashville Sounds aims to bounce back on Friday night with RHP Carlos Rodriguez (1-0, 1.00 ERA) getting the start against LHP Quinn Mathews (0-1, 3.52 ERA) and Memphis. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35pm at First Horizon Park.
