Sounds Held To Two Hits In 3-1 Loss To RedHawks

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Nashville Sounds were held to two hits by Oklahoma City pitchers in their 3-1 loss to the RedHawks on Wednesday evening at Greer Stadium.

Nashville (3-4), which suffered back-to-back losses for the first time this season, was held to one run or less for the fourth time in their seven contests.

RedHawks starter Jarred Cosart (1-0) stifled the Sounds in his five scoreless frames, allowing only one run and striking out seven batters to earn the victory.

Oklahoma City grabbed a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning with an unearned run against Sounds starter Hiram Burgos, snapping the right-hander's scoreless streak at 19 innings.

The RedHawks loaded the bags on a single and a pair of walks before Che-Hsuan Lin scampered home to score the night's first run on a passed ball charged to Nashville catcher Dayton Buller. Burgos escaped further damage in the inning by striking out Chris Wallace and retiring Trevor Crowe on a lineout to strand a pair of runners in scoring position.

Oklahoma City third baseman Jimmy Paredes upped the visitors' lead to 3-0 in the fourth when he lined a two-run homer over the right field wall, his first roundtripper of the year. The blast, off Burgos, also plated Jake Elmore, who had preceded Paredes with a double.

Burgos (0-1) suffered the loss for the Sounds after giving up three runs (two earned) on three hits in his five frames. He walked four batters and struck out five, throwing 52 of his 81 pitches for strikes.

The Sounds squandered an early scoring opportunity, leaving the bases loaded in the second against Cosart. After the RedHawks right-hander gave up a single to Stephen Parker then issued consecutive two-out walks to Dayton Buller and Ozzie Chavez, he recovered to induce an inning-ending groundout from Caleb Gindl to thwart damage.

Gindl's groundout began a stretch of 16 consecutive Nashville batters retired by Oklahoma City pitchers.

Buller ended that string when he led off the bottom of the eighth with his first home run of the year, a solo shot to left that careened off the guitar-shaped scoreboard. The Nashville backstop connected on left-hander Wes Musick's 0-1 offering to make it a 3-1 contest.

Jose Valdez closed out the contest with a hitless ninth for Oklahoma City to notch his second save of the year.

The teams are scheduled to wrap up the four-game series with a 7:05 p.m. finale on Thursday evening. Right-hander Johnny Hellweg (1-0, 0.00) will take the hill for the Sounds to face Oklahoma City southpaw Brett Oberholtzer (0-0, 6.23).