Sounds Edge 51s In 10 Innings In Series Finale
With the victory, Nashville (18-28) notched consecutive road wins for the first time all season and gained a split of the four-game set with the 51s. The Sounds finished 4-4 on their West Coast road trip.
Nashville, which notched its eighth last at-bat victory of the year, plated the winner in the top of the tenth against Jim Hoey. After Andy Gonzalez drew an inning-opening walk, Jordan Brown and Eric Farris reached on consecutive bunt singles to load the bases with one out. Following a Hainley Statia strikeout, Martin Maldonado hit an RBI fielder's choice to third to plate Gonzalez with the go-ahead run.
The 51s threatened in the bottom of the tenth, putting the first two men on base with a pair of singles against Jim Henderson. The Sounds right-hander recovered to strike out the next two batters in succession before inducing a game-ending flyout to left-center from Travis d'Arnaud, who had homered twice already in the game.
Henderson (3-1) picked up the win with two scoreless innings of work and ran his scoreless streak to 24.0 consecutive innings to open the year for Nashville. Hoey (0-2) took the loss after giving up the winning run in his lone inning of action for Las Vegas.
Red-hot Brooks Conrad went 3-for-4 on the night with three RBIs and another homer for Nashville to extend his hitting streak to 14 games, which includes an extra-base hit in each of his last eight contests. The veteran is batting .418 in 19 games this season.
Las Vegas got off to a quick start against Sounds starter Mike Fiers, plating four runs on three hits in the bottom of the first inning including a pair of back-to-back homers.
Anthony Gose led off with an infield single and Adeiny Hechavarria drew a walk to get things started. After Gose advanced to third on a passed ball, he trotted home with the night's first run when Fiers committed a balk on a pickoff attempt.
Adam Lind then belted his third home run of the series, a mammoth two-run shot to right on a 3-1 fastball from Fiers. d'Arnaud followed with a wind-aided solo homer to right, his eighth longball of the season.
Conrad brought Nashville back within a run in the third when he extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a three-run homer to center off Las Vegas left-hander Aaron Laffey. The two-out blast, Conrad's eighth of the year and sixth in his last seven games, plated Logan Schafer and Maldonado to reduce the Sounds' deficit to 4-3.
Fiers, who took a no-decision after tossing a season-high 104 pitches over seven innings, recovered nicely after his rough start by retiring 19 of his final 20 hitters faced. Included in the stretch was a Sounds season-best 15 straight hitters retired from the final out of the first frame through the first two batters of the sixth inning, when d'Arnaud ended that run by slugging his second home run of the evening, a two-out solo homer to right-center that upped the Las Vegas lead to 5-3.
Nashville knotted the contest at 5-5 with a pair of runs in the top of the seventh inning . Erick Almonte led off with an infield single and advanced to second on third baseman Mike McCoy's throwing error on the play. Farris followed with an RBI single to center to pull the Sounds back within one at 5-4. Later in the frame, Schafer ripped a two-out, game-tying single to right to plate Statia, who had reached on a fielder's choice then stole second to get into scoring position.
Gonzalez gave Nashville its first lead of the night at 6-5 in the top of the eighth inning when his second double of the game drove in Conrad, who had opened the inning with a single to greet 51s reliever Jerry Gil. The pair of two-baggers extended Gonzalez's season-best hitting streak to eight games.
The back-and-forth scoring continued in the home half of the eighth when Las Vegas posted back-to-back doubles off Sounds reliever Rob Wooten to knot the score once again at 6-6. With one out, Anthony Gose hit a ball to right and hustled to second for a two-bagger as Caleb Gindl was slow to play the ball. Hechavarria followed with a liner to left that was just missed by a diving Conrad, bringing Gose plateward and chasing Wooten from the contest. Victor Garate came on for Nashville and got out of the inning with no further damage to keep it deadlocked.
Nashville was unable to cash in on a two-out, bases-loaded opportunity in the top of the ninth as Las Vegas reliever Chad Beck induced an inning-ending flyout from pinch-hitter Corey Patterson to stifle the attempted Nashville rally.
The Sounds return home to Music City on Friday to host the Round Rock Express (AAA-Rangers) in the 7:05 p.m. opener of a four-game series. Right-hander Seth McClung (1-4, 5.12) will toe the rubber for Nashville and face Round Rock left-hander Martin Perez (3-4, 5.72), the Texas Rangers' top pitching prospect.