PCL1 Nashville Sounds

Sounds Edge Z's, 3-2

Published on July 22, 2012 under Pacific Coast League (PCL1)
Nashville Sounds News Release


METAIRIE, La. - The Nashville Sounds edged the New Orleans Zephyrs by a 3-2 margin on Sunday evening at Zephyr Field.

The win was the league-leading 22nd one-run victory of the year for the Sounds (45-56).

Second baseman Eric Farris paced the Nashville offense with a 3-for-4 effort to extend the Sounds' longest active hitting streak to five games, the infielder's sixth hit streak of five games or greater this season. Farris, who also stole a pair of bases in the contest, is batting .347 (33-for-95) over his last 28 contests.

Outfielder Caleb Gindl drove in two of the Sounds' three runs on the evening. Catcher Dayton Buller slugged a solo homer to account for the third Nashville run.

The Sounds jumped ahead 1-0 in the top of the first inning against New Orleans starter Brad Hand. Corey Patterson drew a game-opening walk and moved to second on a Farris bunt single. After the two runners executed a double steal, Patterson raced home with the night's first run on a Gindl sacrifice fly.

Nashville starter Mark Rogers retired the first six batters in order before running into control issues in the third, issuing three walks to load the bases with two outs before punching out Chris Coghlan to escape the jam unscathed. The right-hander tossed 65 pitches over those first three frames.

Buller doubled the Sounds' lead to 2-0 in the fifth with a one-out solo homer to left-center that just cleared the glove of a leaping Kevin Mattison. The blast off Hand was the backstop's third roundtripper of the year.

After Rogers successfully worked around a pair of Z's baserunners in the fourth, New Orleans finally broke through for a run against him in the fifth. With one out, Mattison tripled off the base of the right field wall and scored on a Gil Velazquez groundout to make it a 2-1 contest.

Gindl tacked on an important insurance run in the eighth when his stroked a two-out RBI double into the right field corner to plate Farris for a 3-1 advantage.

Rogers (6-6) picked up the win after tossing a season-high 104 pitches and matching a season best with seven strikeouts during his five innings of action. He allowed one run on two hits while also issuing four walks.

Rob Wooten followed Rogers to the hill for the Sounds and turned in a solid outing, retiring all six batters faced.

Tim Dillard was next to the bump for Nashville and was greeted by a solo homer off the bat of Mattison (2-for-4), who fouled off three two-strike offerings before belting his ninth longball of the year to right to reduce the Sounds' lead to 3-2 in the bottom of the eighth. After Dillard allowed a subsequent single, the Nashville defense turned an outstanding 6-4-3, inning-ending double play to keep the lead intact.

Jim Henderson came on for the ninth and allowed a leadoff single before inducing a double-play grounder from Gaby Sanchez. With two down, Henderson struck out Donnie Murphy but the batter reached first as Buller was unable to glove the baseball and was charged with a passed ball. Henderson recovered by popping up Brad Davis for the final out to nail down his 14th save of the year.

Hand (7-5) took a hard-luck loss after he worked a quality start for the Z's, allowing two runs on four hits in six innings.

The Sounds will look to lock up their fourth winning road series of the year when the teams wrap up the four-game set with a 7:00 p.m. finale on Monday evening. Right-hander Brian Baker (2-3, 5.02) will toe the rubber for the Sounds to face New Orleans right-hander Omar Poveda (0-1, 3.63).

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Pacific Coast League Stories from July 22, 2012


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