Nashville Sounds Sing a Victory Song After Defeat of Streaking Salt Lake Bees, 4-3

MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com – NASHVILLE, Tenn. – And that’s why they play the games.

One big inning was all the Nashville Sounds needed to slow down the streaking Salt Lake Bees in a 4-3 victory on Friday night at Greer Stadium.

The 8-19 Sounds managed to knock off a Bees team that came into the game with a 24-2 record, the best start in minor league history.

It didn’t take long for Salt Lake to get on the board, with the Bees plating three runs in the second inning off Sounds starter Chris Narveson. Terry Evans singled and stole second, then moved to third on a wild pitch. Dee Brown followed with a walk, and Ryan Budde drove them both plateward with a two-run double that barely managed to stay fair down the left field line. Brad Coon singled in the next at bat, bringing Budde around to score the final run of the inning.

With those three runs, the Bees have now outscored their opponents 104-37 over the first four innings on the season.

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Salt Lake starter David Austen, making his first career Triple-A appearance, only gave up one hit in five innings of work and was in line for the win before the Sounds' big rally.

Apparently Austen was the only thing standing in the Sounds way because the Nashville bats exploded in the bottom of the seventh inning. Laynce Nix started the inning off by crushing a double to left-center off Bees reliever Henry Bonilla and came around to score when Brad Nelson hit a double of his own to deep center field in the next at bat. Nelson then moved to third on a groundout by Russell Branyan and scored on a sacrifice fly from Eric Munson.

Sounds second baseman Abraham Nunez continued the rally with another double for Nashville and moved to third on an error by left fielder Evans, who mishandled the ball off the wall. The double was the season-high fourth of the game for the Sounds. J.R. Hopf followed with a walk and was replaced by pinch runner Adam Heether.

Bees reliever Alex Serrano came in to face Ozzie Chavez, who blooped a single into right field to score Nunez to make it 3-3 and move Heether to third. Hernan Iribarren concluded the scoring by knocking a run-scoring single, his first hit in 20 bats. That hitless streak was the longest for any Sounds player this season, but Iribarren snapped it at the right time with the go-ahead single.

Narveson (1-4) never gave up another run after the second inning and had his team-leading third quality start of the season for the Sounds. He got a well-deserved win after getting only 13 runs of support in his first five starts.

Luis Pena (0-0) gave the Sounds a little scare by giving up a hit and then a wild pitch to move Bobby Wilson to second in the ninth, but he notched his second save of the season by getting Matthew Brown to ground out to end the game.

Tim Dillard pitched a scoreless eighth inning for the Sounds to lower his ERA to 2.95 on the season.

Bonilla (1-1) took the loss for the Bees after giving up four earned runs in only 1 2/3 innings pitched.

The teams will continue the series tomorrow at 6 p.m. at Greer Stadium with right-hander Richie Gardner (0-1, 7.20) taking the mound for Nashville against righty Shane Loux (4-1, 2.05) for Salt Lake.

Another fireworks show will follow the game and the first 2,000 fans through the turnstiles receive a free Bryantman figurine.
 

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