Norfolk Blown Away in Series Opener vs. Nashville

NORFOLK, Va. --- The Norfolk Tides (46-53) lost to the Nashville Sounds (60-39), 8-3, on Tuesday at Harbor Park. The Tides have lost three games in a row.

Both teams scored in the first inning. Nashville was able to scratch across an unearned run to take the initial lead. But Norfolk responded right away, where Gunnar Henderson led off with a double and then scored on a single by Kyle Stowers to tie the game at 1-1.

Nashville retook the lead in the second inning. Mario Feliciano walked with one out and stole second base. Sal Frelick then knocked Feliciano in for his first Triple-A RBI and to give Nashville a 2-1 lead. In the third, they added two more runs when Keston Hiura blasted a two-run homer to extend the Sounds lead to 4-1.

Back-to-back home runs were hit by the Sounds in the fourth inning to extend their lead to 6-1. Mario Feliciano led the inning off with his third homer of the season, while Weston Wilson followed him with his eighth homer. They went on to score two more runs in the fifth when Brice Turang hit a two-run single to extend Nashville’s lead to 8-1.

Stowers would knock in a run in the sixth inning on an RBI groundout and Rylan Bannon would hit a sacrifice fly in the eighth, but that would be it as the Tides lost, 8-3. Game two of the series starts tomorrow at 6:35 p.m. RHP Matt Harvey (2-0, 4.58) will start for the Tides and will face off against Sounds starter RHP Jason Alexander (6-2, 2.39).

POSTGAME NOTES

TOP GUNNAR: Extending his hitting streak to 13 games tonight was Gunnar Henderson, who went 2-for-5 with two runs and a double...during that streak, he’s batting .360 (18-for-50) with 11 runs, three doubles, two triples, three home runs, nine RBI and seven walks...it’s tied the longest hitting streak by a Tide this season (Richie Martin’s 13-game streak from May 3 - 24)...in all, it’s tied for the third-longest active hitting streak in the International League...he hasn’t struck out more than once in 15 straight games (since July 8), the tied for second-longest streak by a Tide this season.

STOWERS POWERS: Kyle Stowers continues to play well, who went 1-for-4 with two RBI tonight...Stowers extended his hitting streak to seven games, batting .400 (12-for-30) with four runs, a double, a triple, two home runs, 11 RBI and a walk ...Stowers ranks among International League leaders in extra-base hits (43, 1st), doubles (23, T-4th), slugging (.536, 6th), OPS (.894, T-7th) and RBI (61, 10th).

TAKE A HIKE: Tides pitchers allowed 11 walks, matching their season-high from April 29 at Gwinnett...the Tides’ record as an Orioles affiliate (since 2007) is 12 set on July 18, 2011 vs Toledo...it was the sixth time this season they’ve had more walks than strikeouts, and the first since June 21 at Lehigh Valley.