Series Preview: Bees vs. Nashville Sounds

Coming off a much needed 4-4 road trip, the Salt Lake Bees (19-21) welcome the Nashville Sounds (10-27) to Spring Mobile Ballpark for a four-game series beginning Thursday, May 16. The league-worst Sounds will visit Salt Lake coming off a sweep at the hands of the Sacramento River Cats. The Sounds are a miserable 2-12 this season away from Nashville, and have won only one road game since mid-April.

The Bees enter the series having won three of four against the Oklahoma City RedHawks, who held the best record in the PCL at the beginning of the series. The Bees took the first three games before dropping the finale in the bottom of the ninth on a walk-off single. The Sounds have lost five straight games, and have won just three of their previous 18.

Jimmy Swift, who began the season in extended spring training, has been rock solid for the Bees this year. He's currently second on the team with a .324 batting average and two home runs in 31 games. After a rough start to the season, Trent Oeltjen has become a lightning rod at the top of the Bees lineup in recent weeks. Of the 50 runs they've scored in the month of May, the Aussie has scored eight of them while batting .291, bringing his season average up to .217.

Pitching woes have plagued the Sounds all season, as their top four starters are a combined 2-19. Johnny Hellweg leads the group with a 4.41 ERA, while Tyler Thornburg (5.59), Zach Kroenke (6.98), and Frankie De La Cruz (7.94) have all struggled. Those four have started 29 of the Sounds' 37 ballgames. On the rare occasions where the team has held a late lead, closer Rob Wooten has been sensational, saving five ballgames while posting a 1.37 ERA in 19.2 innings.

The bats have been equally disappointing in the Music City this season, as the Sounds rank dead last in the PCL in batting average (.234), on-base percentage (.304), slugging percentage (.359), runs scored (128), and extra-base hits (92). Catcher Dayton Buller (.333) and second baseman Scooter Gennett (.318) are the only Sounds players who are batting over .300, and their most effective regular, 5'7" outfielder Caleb Gindl, is batting .244. He is second on the team in home runs (3) and leads the squad with 18 RBI.

The first three games of the series will begin at 6:35 p.m. MT, with the finale Sunday commencing at 1.05 p.m. After the series, the Bees will face the Memphis Redbirds in Salt Lake before closing out May with an eight-game road swing through Las Vegas and Sacramento. All games can be heard on 1280 The Zone and at slbees.com.