DURHAM, NC. — The Nashville Sounds dismantled the Durham Bulls with a 10-2 win Wednesday Night at Durham Bulls Athletic Park, extending the win streak to nine consecutive games. The team put together a season-high four home runs, led by Akil Baddoo with two solo shots in the first inning and the fifth.
In game two of this week's series, Nashville continued its dominance in the opening frame with major league rehabber Baddoo belting his first home run of the season on the second pitch of the game for the quick 1-0 lead. The Sounds added more pressure in the inning with Luis Lara ripping a line drive double to right field, his fifth of the year and Jett Williams followed with a hard grounder to the third basemen and beat the throw to first. A wild pitch by Durham's Mason Englert scored Lara, extending the Sounds lead to 2-0. Nashville's lead didn't last long as Durham tied the game up 2-2 in the bottom of the third inning with four singles off of starting pitcher Tate Kuehner. With two outs in the inning, Kuehner was replaced by Kaleb Bowman due to an injury, but Bowman closed out the frame with a strikeout to strand three Bulls on base.
After a quiet fourth by both teams, the Sounds broke the tie in the top of the fifth inning with Baddoo crushing his second solo homer of the night to center field and giving a one-run lead to Nashville. Two at-bats later, Lara earned his second hit of the night with a base hit to center. Williams ripped his seventh double of the season right past the third basemen, putting runners at the corners, then Tyler Black got in on the action and lined his first triple for the Sounds off the left field wall, scoring Lara and Williams for the 5-2 Sounds lead. Eddys Leonard led off the sixth inning, hammering his eighth home run of the year and marked the furthest home run by a Sounds hitter this season (445 feet), adding an insurance run for a 6-2 lead.
The Sounds offense did not step off the gas pedal in the top of the seventh inning as all nine Sounds hitters had a plate appearance with six of them drawing walks. Cooper Pratt obliterated his fifth homer of the year to left field and extended the large lead to 7-2, which also marked the second straight leadoff homer off of Luis Guerrero. Lara followed Pratt by earning his third hit of the game with a opposite liner into left field and his second double as well. Williams, Black, Brock Wilken and Leonard drew four consecutive walks of six total in the inning and scored Lara and Williams for the 9-2 lead. Ramón Rodríguez grounded into a double play but still scored Black for the large 10-2 heading into the last three innings.
After Kuehner allowed the two runs in his 2.2 innings of work, Bowman, Drew Rom, JB Bukauskas and Easton McGee each faced five Bulls batters and combined to strike out 10 hitters on three hits. Craig Yoho entered the ninth inning and shut down the Bulls after he issued a leadoff walk with a double-play drawn up by Pratt, then a shallow fly out to right fielder Jordyn Adams ended the game in a 10-2 Sounds win.
The Sounds continue their road series against the Durham Bulls on Thursday, May 21. First pitch is scheduled for 5:45 p.m. CT.
POSTGAME NOTES:
THAT'S A BAD-DOO MAN: Major League Rehabber Akil Baddoo crushed his first two career Sounds home runs with solo shots in Wednesday night's win, giving the Sounds the go-ahead 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning and with a 3-2 go-ahead lead in the top of the fifth inning. Those two solo homers marked his fifth career two-homer game and the 26th and 27th career minor league long-ball for Baddoo when batting in the one spot since 2016 to go along with 45 doubles, 17 triples and 82 RBI. The 11-year veteran has recorded 53 career minor league homers with a single-season career-high of 16 coming last year with Single-A Lakeland and Triple-A Toledo. He has hit a .256 batting average (455-for-1779), 191 XBH and 211 RBI in his minor league career (including postseason) with eight different teams.
HOW FAR???: Eddys Leonard belted a solo home run, his eighth of the year and marked the furthest homer by a Sounds hitter this season with 445 feet and 110.4 MPH off the bat. That home run surpassed Luke Adams' long bomb, who hit a 109.9 MPH homer off the bat with a distance of 423 feet back on April 5 against Charlotte at First Horizon Park. Leonard has posted a .329 batting average (47-for-143), 21 XBH and 33 RBI this season. The 445-foot-long bomb marks the third-farthest home run in Leonard's nine-year minor league career, while the second-longest home run of 448 feet also came against Durham last season when he was with Gwinnett. Leonard continues to pester Triple-A opponents and leads the team in homers (8), RBI (33) and doubles (12), while ranking in the top 10 in batting average (.329), SLG (.594) and OPS (1.006) in the International League. Leonard has the 17th farthest hit ball in the International League and the 27th furthest at the Triple-A level this season. The four homers by three different Sounds hitters are the most homers by the Sounds team this season and have posted 43 total homers, 31 off right-handed pitchers, 27 on the road and 14 go-ahead homers. The 27 home runs on the road rank in the top 10 in the International League.
YO-BRO: Right-hander Craig Yoho extended his streak without an earned run to eight consecutive games as he added another scoreless inning to his line in Wednesday night's win over the Bulls, while extending his consecutive inning streak to 9.2 innings pitched too. In that span, he has allowed three hits and struck out 11 batters in the process. Yoho's longest streak sits at 12 consecutive games when he did it two different times during the 2025 season and has the opportunity to tie his career-high in his next relief appearance. The Brewers no. 28-rated prospect has posted a 1.38 ERA in 11 appearances for the Sounds this season and has a 10-3 career minor league record with a 1.19 ERA in 105 appearances. Since making his pro-debut in 2023, Yoho still owns the best ERA in the minor leagues for any pitcher with 100+ appearances with the next closest Zach Agnos, who posted a 1.77 ERA in 102 MiLB games throughout the same span.
MULTI-PEAT: Outfielder Luis Lara earned his second straight multi-hit game of this week's series in Wednesday night's dominating win over the Durham Bulls, going 3-for-5, 2 2B, and a new season-high three runs. This marked the ninth 3-hit game this season for Lara and the 17th overall multi-hit game, which is two ahead of Eddys Leonard (15) for the team lead. Lara's longest multi-hit streak this season sits at three consecutive games from May 10-13, including two 3-hit games in that process and has seven more three-hit games than five other Sounds hitters.
DIVINE NINE: Nashville extended its winning streak to nine consecutive games with a dominant 10-2 win over the Durham Bulls Wednesday night. The nine straight wins are the most in the minors currently and is Nashville's longest winning streak since winning nine straight games from May 23-31 during the 2016 season. The nine consecutive games are tied for the third-longest streak for the Sounds since the start of the 2005 season.