MLN - THE RAW FEED - www.mlntherawfeed.com - MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com - NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Nashville Sounds opened their homestand on the
short end of a 5-2 loss to the Tacoma Rainiers on Tuesday evening at Greer
Stadium in the opener of a four-game series.
Tacoma took advantage of a
two-out dropped fly ball by Tony Gwynn in center field to grab a 2-0 lead
against Mark DiFelice in the top of the first inning. Wladimir Balentien doubled
to left before Gwynn failed to glove a Victor Diaz fly to allow the first run to
score. Shawn Garrett followed with an RBI double to right-center that increased
the visitors’ advantage to two.
The Sounds tied the contest in the sixth
against Tacoma
reliever Tracy Thorpe. Tony Gwynn led off with a single and moved to second on a
Joe Dillon single before both runners advanced on a wild pitch and Brad Nelson
walked to load the bases. Laynce Nix halved the Rainiers’ lead to 2-1 with a sacrifice fly to center that
plated Gwynn before Vinny Rottino delivered a game-tying, two-out RBI single to
right later in the frame.
The visitors quickly re-took the lead in the
top of the seventh when they erupted for three runs against the Nashville bullpen. Rob
Johnson and Luis Valbuena opened the frame with consecutive doubles off reliever
Troy Cate to give Tacoma a 3-2 lead. After a flyout, Joe Bateman
took over on the hill and was greeted by another set of back-to-back RBI doubles
off the bats of Matt Tuiasosopo and Balentien that brought the score to 5-2.
Thorpe (2-3) picked up the win for the Rainiers despite being charged with a blown save as he
allowed two runs on four hits in a season-high three innings of work.
Cate (1-2) took a loss in his Sounds debut after giving up two runs on
four hits over 1 1/3 innings.
Neither starter factored in the decision
despite a pair of solid efforts. DiFelice allowed two unearned runs over his
five frames of action for the Sounds to lower his ERA to 2.92 through eight
starts with the club. Tacoma left-hander Jake Woods struck out five
batters over his five scoreless innings for the visitors.
The teams
continue the series with a noon matinee on Wednesday afternoon. Left-hander
Lindsay Gulin (5-4, 3.67) will man the bump for Nashville to face Rainiers
right-hander Andy Baldwin (6-5, 5.40).
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Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 09:04AM 
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