PCL1 Nashville Sounds

Simon Leads Sounds To 9-2 Win On Birthday

Published on May 27, 2004 under Pacific Coast League (PCL1)
Nashville Sounds News Release


FRESNO – Rehabbing first baseman Randall Simon homered and drove in four runs on his birthday to help the Nashville Sounds snap a four-game skid with a 9-2 victory over the Fresno Grizzlies on Wednesday evening at Grizzlies Stadium.

Sounds starter Dave Williams hurled his best outing of the 2004 season, allowing only one run on three hits while fanning nine in his seven innings of work, as Nashville (22-23) pulled back within a game of .500 with the victory and remains in second place in the PCL Eastern Division.

The Sounds jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning against Fresno starter Chris Begg. Tony Alvarez drew a one-out walk and moved to third on a Luke Allen single before scoring on a sacrifice fly to center by Simon, who was celebrating his 29th birthday and recorded the third RBI of his rehab stint with Nashville.

Keith McDonald padded the lead in the top of the third when he plated two runs on a two-out, bases-loaded single up the middle, scoring Rich Thompson and Tony Alvarez. Allen was thrown out at third on the play to end the inning.

The Sounds offense blew the game open in the sixth with a four-run inning. Simon continued his birthday celebration with a solo home run off Begg to lead off the inning, his first roundtripper of the 2004 season. Thompson, who went 3-for-5 in the contest, plated three more runs for Nashville with two down in the frame when he smacked a bases-loaded, bases-clearing three-run double into the left-field corner to extend the Sounds' lead to 7-0.

Fresno did not record a hit against Williams until the bottom of the sixth inning when Trey Lunsford led off the frame with a double. The Grizzlies finally made it onto the board against Williams when Lance Niekro scored on Cody Ransom's broken-bat RBI single to left in the bottom of the seventh to make the score 7-1 in favor of the Sounds.

Simon capped off his night, and possibly his rehab stint with the Sounds, by smacking a two-run two-bagger to left-center off veteran left-hander Jason Jacome in the top of the ninth to extend Nashville's lead to 9-1.

Fresno plated its second run in the bottom of the ninth when former Sound Dave Doster slapped a two-out RBI single off Nashville reliever Juan Acevedo, who worked the final two frames after Williams departed.

Williams (3-1) won his second straight start after his dominant performance, while Begg (1-3) took the loss for the Grizzlies.

The Sounds look for a series split when the teams wrap up their four-game series with a 9:05 p.m. finale on Thursday evening at Grizzlies Stadium. Nashville left-hander Sean Burnett (1-2, 5.16) takes the hill to face Fresno southpaw Noah Lowry (2-4, 5.31).

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Pacific Coast League Stories from May 27, 2004


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