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Memphis Ends Five-Game Win Streak With 4-2 Loss

John Gast Retires First 17 Sounds Before Second Rain Delay Ends No-Hit Bid
July 8, 2014

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The Memphis Redbirds snapped a season-best five-game winning streak with a come-from-behind 4-2 defeat to the cross-state rival Nashville Sounds on Tuesday night at AutoZone Park.

The game was played around two rain delays combining for a total of 56 minutes.

With the loss to first place Nashville, Memphis moves to 43-47 on the season and ends the club's best winning streak since closing out the 2012 campaign with five wins in a row.

Outfielders Shane Robinson (2-for-4, 2B, R), Tommy Pham (2-for-4, 3B, R) and Stephen Piscotty (2-for-4, 2 RBI) each had two hits, accounting for six of the clubs seven hits in the defeat.

Lost in the evening was Memphis starter John Gast, who fired a season-high 5 2/3 perfect innings and struck out four in a no-decision. The left-hander retired all 17 batters he faced and had his evening cut short due to a rain delay. Forty-four of his 61 pitches were thrown for strikes.

Gast sat down the first 12 Sounds batters before the game was sent into a 20-minute rain delay. After the left-hander retired his next five in a row, a second rain delay consisting of 36 minutes ended his evening.

In six career starts against Nashville since 2012, Gast is a lifetime 4-0 with a 1.93 ERA (7er/32.2ip), 28 strikeouts, and .127 average against (16-for-126).

Memphis struck first in the bottom of the first as Robinson hit a leadoff single, advanced to second on a wild pitch, and came around to score on a pair of groundouts.

The Redbirds tacked their other run in the fifth inning for a 2-0 lead. Pham hit his team-leading fourth triple of the game and scored on a subsequent Piscotty RBI single to left.

After the game resumed from its second rain delay, Nashville broke through against reliever Angel Castro and took a 3-2 lead in top of the seventh. Elian Herrera reached on a fielding error and scored on Hector Gomez's game-tying, two-run homer to left, his 10th of the season. Three batters later with two aboard, Matt Clark hit a go-ahead RBI double to center.

Pete Orr went deep on the first pitch from Seth Blair to begin the eighth, adding an insurance run for a Sounds' 4-2 lead.

Castro (7-5) took the blown save and loss with three runs (two earned) in 1 1/3 innings.

Memphis and Nashville continue its series at 7:05 pm CT on Wednesday night at AutoZone Park. Left-hander Tim Cooney (8-5, 3.94) will start for the Redbirds against Sounds right-hander and former Redbird Michael Blazek (1-3, 4.44).