Bees Thump Sounds Again to Win Series

The Salt Lake Bees scored eight runs in the third inning and raced to a 13-4 win over the Nashville Sounds in the series finale Tuesday afternoon at First Tennessee Park.
The eight-run frame was the theme of the series for the Bees who scored 10 runs in the sixth inning in Sunday night's win, and seven runs in the eighth inning of last night's win.
It looked as though the Sounds would play from ahead for a while when they scored in the first inning. Franklin Barreto started the rally with an infield single and quickly swiped second base to get into scoring position. Moments later, Barreto raced home when an errant pickoff throw by Andrew Heaney went into center field.
Two Nashville errors in the top of the second evened the game for the Bees, but the real issues came in the third.
Salt Lake sent 11 hitters to the plate in the inning and came away with eight runs on eight hits. Dustin Ackley's run-scoring single gave the Bees a 2-1 lead and they never looked back. César Puello, Rey Navarro, Nolan Fontana, and Bo Way chipped in RBI hits.
The Bees put an exclamation point on the frame when Eric Young, Jr. belted a two-run homer into The Band Box to cap the scoring and make it a 9-1 game. It was the third straight game in which a single player had two hits in one inning for Salt Lake.
Sounds starter Zach Neal settled down the rest of his outing but was still charged with eight earned runs on nine hits in five innings. The loss dropped his record to 1-7 on the season.
Nashville scored a pair of runs in the fifth to cut the deficit to 9-3, but that's as close as the game would get. Matt McBride doubled, Melvin Mercedes knocked him in with a base hit to left-center, and Barreto doubled down the left field line to plate Mercedes with Nashville's third run of the day.
Barreto finished the day 3-for-4 and was the lone Nashville player to tally a multi-hit game. Matt Olson drilled his 21^st home run of the season in the eighth to cap Nashville's scoring for the day.
After winning four of the first five games on the homestand, the Sounds dropped the final three games to finish .500 on the eight-game homestand.
The Sounds enjoy a league wide off day Wednesday before beginning an eight-game road trip in Reno, Nevada on Thursday. Right-hander Frankie Montas (0-1, 4.22) starts for the Sounds against right-hander Jake Buchanan (2-0, 5.20) for the Aces. First pitch is scheduled for 9:05 p.m. CST.
The 2017 season is the Sounds' 40^th in franchise history and their third as the Oakland Athletics' top affiliate. Single-game tickets are available now by calling (615) 690-4487 or by visiting www.nashvillesounds.com.