Sounds Walked Off For Second Straight Night

Lawrenceville, GA — Nashville dropped their second straight in walk-off fashion to the Gwinnett Stripers on Saturday night at Gwinnett Field. The two clubs traded early runs before Nashville allowed the final two runs of the night in a 4-3 loss in extra innings. Tate Kuehner was excellent on the mound for the Sounds, and the offense saw Luis Lara and Ramon Rodriguez each tally three-hit games at the plate.

Lara earned his first hit of the night with a RBI single to score Jett Williams in the top of the first inning as the later collected his lone hit of the game to lead off the night for Nashville. Kuehner limited Gwinnett to just the tying run in the bottom of the second despite back-to-back hits to start the inning, including a leadoff double for Aaron Schunk. The see-saw start to the night continued in the top of the third when Brock Wilken put the Sounds back in front with a sacrifice fly to score Luke Adams, who doubled for his only hit of the night to begin the inning for Nashville.

Gwinnett looked poised to take their first lead after three straight one-out singles not only evened the score at 2-2 but left runners on first and second for Kuehner to navigate. The southpaw stranded both with the help of his third strikeout of the night. He then worked a 1-2-3 bottom of the fifth as the game remained tied at 2-2.

Lara made it a 3-for-3 start to the game when he added his third single of the night to follow Cooper Pratt aboard in the fifth inning. However, the pair or Brewers prospects were left stranded after a strikeout and lineout got Lucas Braun through his fifth and final inning relatively unscathed despite the eight hits allowed. Kuehner put a bow on his first career Triple-A quality start with his fourth strikeout to end the home half of the sixth. Pratt and Adams both reached ahead of Lara to start the top of the seventh, but a popped-up bunt attempt by Lara ended with Pratt and Adams off the bases after a high-IQ double play was turned and started by Gwinnett reliever Tayler Scott. With Lara reaching on the play, he put himself into scoring position with a steal and Wilken took care of the rest with a RBI double to put Nashville back in front 3-2.

Peter Strzelecki stranded the tying run in scoring position in the bottom of the seventh after allowing a one-out double but was later charged with the tying run after a leadoff single in the eighth came around to score when Will Childers was greeted into the game with a RBI double off the bat of Rowdy Tellez. Childers kept it all square at 3-3 despite a walk following the double to Tellez as the Stripers' aggressiveness on the bases backfired trying to steal home. A two-out walk issued by Childers proved harmless in the bottom of the ninth when the right-hander struck out Brewer Hicklen looking to send the game to extras.

The Sounds went down in order in the top of the 10th and left-hander Brian Fitzpatrick took over on the mound in the bottom of the inning for Nashville. A productive groundout moved the winning run to third, and Jose Azocar finished it off with a RBI single through the left side of the infield to give Gwinnett the 4-3 win and the series.

The Sounds and Stripers will wrap up the series Sunday afternoon before the Sounds return to First Horizon Park for the first matchup against a Boston Red Sox affiliate since 1991 beginning on Tuesday, April 14 when Worcester comes to Nashville. RHP Carlos Rodriguez is slated to get the ball for the Sounds in the series finale at Gwinnett Field Sunday with first pitch scheduled for 12:05 pm CT.

POSTGAME NOTES:

EVERYBODY LOVES RAMON: Ramon Rodriguez collected his third straight multi-hit game after finishing Saturday night 3-for-4 out of the nine hole in Nashville's lineup. Rodriguez is hitting .458 (11-for-24) in seven games this season with four total multi-hit games and is 7-for-15 (.467) with two doubles, and a RBI in his four games against Gwinnett this week. Rodriguez was limited to just 21 games a season ago for Double-A Biloxi but hit .359 (23-for-64) with seven multi-hit games. Rodriguez is now tied with Greg Jones for the second-most multi-hit games for Nashville this season.

JEEZ LUIS: Luis Lara stayed red-hot to begin the year with his fifth multi-hit game and third 3+ hit game to start his Triple-A career. The 21-year-old Brewers prospect ranks fifth in the International League with his .370 AVG through his first 12 games of the season while also leading the league with 14 runs scored and is tied for fourth with 17 hits and seven stolen bases. Lara led Double-A Biloxi with 36 multi-hit games a season ago, which was 12 more 2+ hit games then the next closer player of the team (Cooper Pratt, 24). The no. 12-rated Brewers prospect also set his single-season career-high with 132 hits and 136 games played for the Shuckers in 2025.

THROUGH THE QUAD: Greg Jones extended his team-leading on-base streak to 12 straight games after drawing a walk in the top of the seventh inning Friday night. Jones is one of 14 players in the International League with a current on-base streak of 12+ games. Esmerlyn Valdez (IND), Hector Rodriguez (LOU), and Jim Jarvis (GWN) all lead the way with streaks of 14 straight games to begin the year.

HIGH QUALITY: Left-hander Tate Kuehner spun his first career quality start in Triple-A after working 6.0 IP with two earned runs allowed in Saturday's loss to Gwinnett. Saturday marked the sixth quality start of his professional career, and the southpaw has earned a quality start all six times he has gone at least 6.0 IP to qualify. The 6.0 IP pitched matches his single-game career-high which he last had on July 25, 2025, with Biloxi against Rocket City. After his four strikeouts on Saturday night, Kuehner sits at 247 strikeouts in his minor league career after just 51 games. He owns a career 9.5 K/9 since being selected in the 7th round by the Brewers in the 2023 MLB Draft out of the University of Louisville.

THE FISH AINT BITIN: With the 4-3 loss to Gwinnett on Saturday night, the Sounds dropped just their fourth series to the Stripers since joining the International League ahead of the 2021 season. Nashville dropped a series last season in Gwinnett 3-2 after having the Sunday game rained out. They also dropped a five-game series to the Stripers 3-2 June 15-20, 2021. Nashville will look to avoid dropping five of six to Gwinnett in the series finale Sunday for just the second time after it first happened June 11-15, 2024. Even with the loss on Saturday night, Nashville owns a 67-45 all-time record over the Braves' Triple-A farm club, including a record of 39-15 all-time at First Horizon Park which will be the home to the final 12 games of the season-long series between the two clubs in 2026.