Tides get little relief, drop second straight to Sounds
For the second straight night, the Norfolk Tides’ bullpen spoiled a strong outing by the starting pitcher.
No. 9 hitter Brian Navarretto hit a grand slam in the bottom of the seventh inning and the Nashville Sounds rallied for an 8-6 victory over the Tides before 5,589 fans Wednesday night at First Horizon Park in Tennessee.
The Sounds (7-4), the Triple-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers, took a 2-0 lead in the six-game series.
The Tides (7-3) remained in a first-place tie in the International League with Iowa, which lost to Omaha 10-6 Wednesday.
Norfolk led 4-1 in the top of the sixth inning, but Nashville scored a run in the bottom of the inning, four in the seventh and two more in the eighth to go ahead 8-4.
Tides starter Chris Vallimont allowed one run on two hits in four innings with seven strikeouts and one walk. It was his first start of the season after he threw four hitless innings of relief in last Thursday’s game against Gwinnett.
After Eddy Alvarez’s solo homer gave the Sounds a 1-0 lead in the third, Norfolk tied it on Colton Cowser’s RBI triple in the top of the fifth. Cowser then scored on a wild pitch by Nashville starter Robert Gasser.
The Tides scored two more runs in the sixth on Lewin Diaz’s two-run homer, his second long ball of the season.
Nashville scored the next seven runs, though, all off Norfolk reliever Ryan Watson (1-1).
Jordan Westburg’s two-run homer in the top of the ninth made things interesting, but Sounds reliever Ethan Small retired Kyle Stowers and Joey Ortiz on groundouts to end it.
Elvis Peguero (2-0), the second of three Nashville pitchers, picked up the victory despite allowing two runs in 2 innings.
Cowser, Diaz and Hudson Haskin each had two hits, and Haskin added two stolen bases.
The teams will play at 7:35 p.m. each day through Saturday before wrapping up the series at 3:05 p.m. Sunday.