Fiers Tosses Three-Hit Shutout In Twinbill Opener
Fiers (1-2) picked up his first victory of the season with the gem, which was his second career shutout. His first, a nine-inning three-hitter, came last August 31 for the Sounds at Iowa. The right-hander walked two batters, hit a pair of batters, and struck out five during his 96-pitch effort.
Logan Schafer and Eric Farris each recorded three hits and Martin Maldonado belted a homer to pace the Sounds' 13-hit attack. Nashville finished 5-for-10 with runners in scoring position in the contest.
The Sounds squandered a no-outs, bases-loaded opportunity in the bottom of the first inning against Reno starter Charles Brewer. Schafer, Farris, and Jeff Bianchi started the frame with three consecutive singles to fill the bags against the right-hander. Brewer induced a comebacker from Jordan Brown and forced Schafer at the plate for the first out. Erick Almonte followed with a line drive to right, which was gloved by ex-Sound Cole Gillespie who then fired to the plate to nail Farris for the final out as he attempted to score on the play.
Nashville took a 3-0 lead in the third against Brewer. Fiers led off with a double into the left field corner and later scored on a bloop RBI single off the bat of Eric Farris, which fell just in front of the glove of a diving Adam Eaton in center field. Later in the frame, Brown and Almonte legged out back-to-back, two-out run-scoring doubles to increase the Sounds' advantage to three.
Maldonado upped the lead to 4-0 in the fourth when he belted his third homer of the season, a one-out solo shot to left-center that careened off the guitar-shaped scoreboard. The blast snapped a 20 at-bat hitless stretch for the backstop.
Farris concluded the Sounds' scoring in the sixth inning with a two-out RBI single that plated Schafer, who had singled with two outs, stole second, and moved to third on a wild pitch.
Brewer (1-3) took the loss after working all six innings for Reno, giving up five runs on 13 hits.