PCL1 Nashville Sounds

Sounds Take Series Opener In New Orleans

Published on April 27, 2006 under Pacific Coast League (PCL1)
Nashville Sounds News Release


METAIRIE, La. - Mike Rivera went 4-for-4 and Nelson Cruz belted his fourth home run in the last three games to lead the Nashville Sounds to a 6-3 victory over the New Orleans Zephyrs on Thursday evening at Zephyr Field in the opener of a four-game series.

Nashville (13-7) recorded its sixth win in the last seven games and has won 12 of 15 contests since opening the season with a 1-4 record.

Rivera accounted for four of the Sounds' seven hits on the evening, including a pair of doubles, to extend his hitting streak to 11 games. The backstop is batting a team-best .438 in his 12 games this season. The four-hit contest was the first by a Sound this season.

Outfielder Tony Gwynn went 0-for-5 to snap the Sounds' longest hit streak of the year at 12 games.

The Sounds plated five runs in the top of the third inning against Zephyrs starter Kyle Denney to break a scoreless tie. Cruz opened the scoring with a one-out home run to right, his fourth longball in the last three games and team-leading seventh roundtripper of the season. The outfielder has homered in a Sounds season-best three straight games and extended his hitting streak to six games with the tater.

Rivera and Brent Abernathy followed with singles before Vinny Rottino drew a walk to load the bases. Denney's inaccuracies continued when he issued a four-pitch walk to Chris Barnwell to force in Rivera for a 2-0 Sounds lead.

A pair of consecutive New Orleans throwing errors on force attempts - by third baseman Brandon Larson and second baseman Bernie Castro - allowed three additional runs to score in the frame as Nashville matched its best single-inning scoring output of the season.

Castro made amends for his error in the bottom of the frame when he put the Zs on the board with a leadoff home run to left off Sounds starter Justin Thompson. The blast was his first of the season.

New Orleans cut the lead to 5-3 in the fourth with a pair of runs on a Reginald Fitzpatrick RBI groundout and Mike Vento's two-out RBI single to center.

Rivera concluded his solid evening in the top of the seventh with an RBI double to bring home Cruz and up the Sounds' advantage to 6-3.

Thompson (1-0) earned his first win of the season for the Sounds after allowing three runs on six hits over five innings. He recorded no walks or strikeouts in his outing. Denney (0-2) took the loss after surrendering five runs (two earned) on five hits while striking out six in his five frames.

Jared Fernandez tossed four scoreless innings of relief for the Sounds to earn his second save of the year. The right-hander has yet to allow a run in 10 2/3 frames since joining Nashville last week.

The teams continue the series with a 7 p.m. contest on Friday. Left-hander Zach Jackson (0-1, 2.81) looks for his first win of the year in his fourth start for Nashville. New Orleans will counter with southpaw Billy Traber (0-0, 2.45).

Check out the Nashville Sounds Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Pacific Coast League Stories from April 27, 2006


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central