Nashville, TN – The weather was perfect as the first pitch was thrown at 6:37 on Friday night, but even with a mild temperature and low humidity, the Nashville Sounds could not find their footing as they fell hard to the visiting Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (SWB) RailRiders, with the final score of 10–5.
This was the fourth matchup of the week for the two teams, and the previous meetings had made for very long nights. Wednesday night was a double-header due to Tuesday night getting rained out. Thursday night saw the home team take a 7–6 victory in the 11th inning, in a game that went over three and a half hours. After the long evenings, that seemed to only play a factor for one team.
Nashville would strike first and relatively early on. In the bottom of the second inning, with Sounds outfielder Eddie Rosario on second and designated hitter Anthony Seigler on first, Raynel Delgado was able to place the ball in right field that gave Rosario enough time to round third and make it home. Infielder Freddy Zamora would leave the two runners hanging as he popped out for the final out, but for the time being, the home team had a soft 1–0 lead.
Both top and bottom of the 3rd inning were largely uneventful, but the top of the 4th inning was its own beast entirely. The RailRiders had Alex Jackson on third base, and Jose Rojas on first, when Bryan De La Cruz stepped up to the plate. The Dominican was just picked up by SWB on 05/01 and already had 6 RBIs in the last 15 innings, and would tally another one as his double into right field would get Jackson home.
SWB infielder Andrew Velazquez came up intending to go for a sacrificial bunt, but when Sounds pitcher Tobias Myers bungled the throw to first base, not only were there no outs, but Rojas and De La Cruz were able to make it across the plate.
SWB was not even finished at this point. They were looking to pad the score just a little more. The RailRiders would also see Jake Gatewood and Ismael Munguia tally up some runs respectively. It seemed entirely possible there would be more to come, but Dominic Smith, who was already 0–1 on the evening, hit into a double play. This was the second time an out by Smith ended the offensive side of things for the away team, proving he’s a better defensive weapon for the home team!
In the top of the 7th, the Sounds bring in Jesus Liranzo, hoping that he’ll stop some of the bleeding as the deficit now was 5–2 in favor of SWB. Guess what... he did not, in fact, stop the bleeding and the wound kept gushing. With Gatewood on 1st, Rodriguez was walked, shifting them around a base. Then, you’d think there would be little to worry about when Smith walked up to the plate, but some magic dust must have been spread on him in the dugout because he cranked one over the right field fence. Before they were done with the inning, they would add one more, putting them up 9–2.
The night before, the Sounds had been five points down late in the game, so there was no need to count them out at this point. The home team had recently proven they can show up when they need to, but this night would not go down the same way. Although Freddy Zamora, Jimmy Herron, and Oliver Dunn would all cross the plate in the 7th inning, that would max out their points.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre would tally one more point before the end of the game, bringing the final to 10–5 in favor of the away team. This is their only win of the series thus far. The two teams facing each other again Saturday night.
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