NASHVILLE - (August 15. 2026) Despite holding a three-run lead through the first four innings of the game, the Nashville Brewskis fell to the Indianapolis Indians in extras for the second time this week with a 4-3 loss Saturday night at First Horizon Park. Brandon Sproat tossed five scoreless innings, allowing one hit and striking out eight batters in his second start for the Sounds.
The Brewskis and the Indians put together six hitless frames as Nashville's starting pitcher Sproat struck out five Indy batters, retiring the 11-of-15 batters faced through four innings of play. Nashville's offense struggled to put together a hit in the first three innings as Noah Murdock and CD Pelham shut down 9-of-the-10 Sounds batters to begin the game as well. Indianapolis finally broke the hitless streak in the top of the fourth inning with a two-out double by Duce Gourson, but Sproat struck out Joshua Palacios and got out of the frame with his seventh strikeout.
Nashville grabbed the first lead of the game in the bottom of the fourth inning as Brock Wilken drew a leadoff walk to begin the frame. Two at-bats later, Jeferson Quero ripped his 14th double of the season for the Brewskis and put Wilken on third. After Luis Matos reached on a fielder's choice, Wilken was out at home and Quero advanced to third. Matos then stole second, while a throwing error on Indy's catcher crossed Quero home for the 1-0 Brewskis lead. Tyler Black followed with a walk then stole second, while Matos stole third and led to Ethan Murray blasting a two-run triple, his second triple of the season, into center field, growing the lead to 3-0. Sproat finished his night tossing five scoreless innings, allowing a hit and striking out a season-high eight batters for the Sounds.
Indianapolis threatened in the top of the sixth inning as reliever Lyon Richardson loaded the bases on a walk and two straight singles. He issued the second walk of the frame which put the Indians on the board. With the bases still loaded, Nick Cimillo grounded into a double play, which still plated the second run for Indy and the Nashville lead was cut down to one. In the top of the eighth inning, the Indians tied the game at three off of Gerson Garabito with two doubles by Johnathan Rodriguez and Joshua Palacios.
The game headed into the 10th as the Indians gained the advantage on a two-out single by Palacios for the 4-3 lead off reliever Blake Holub. The Brewskis had one last opportunity in the bottom half of the 10th inning as Sal Frelick and Wilken drew back-to-back walks to load the bases pushing Murray to third. Blake Burke however was unable to capitalize for the walk-off win as he flew out to center field and the game ended in a 4-3 final.
The Sounds will look to secure the series split in Sunday's series finale against the Indians. Tyson Hardin (3-4, 5.15 ERA) will get the start for Nashville against left-hander Connor Wietgrefe who will get the start for Indianapolis. First pitch is set for 6:05 p.m.
POSTGAME NOTES:
LET ME CLEAR MY SPROAT: Right-hander Brandon Sproat made his second start with Nashville and his First Horizon Park debut on Saturday night. He turned in a strong start for the Sounds, allowing just one hit across five scoreless innings. He racked up eight strikeouts, which were his second-most in any start this season in 23 total appearances (21 GS) between Milwaukee and Nashville. He set his season-high with 10 strikeouts on June 23 against the Cincinnati Reds. That start was also the only time he had allowed one or fewer hits, and no runs across a 5+ IP start this year. Saturday night's start against Indianapolis marked his 16th career start of 5+ scoreless innings and his ninth in Triple-A. He also has two in the big leagues, four in Double-A, and one in High-A. Saturday night was his fourth while doing so with one or fewer hits allowed.
TRI-MUR: Ethan Murray recorded his second triple of the season and his second career three-bagger with Nashville (109 G). It was the 10th triple of his minor league career. He has now recorded multiple triples in the same season for just a third time, also recording two in 2021 with Low-A Carolina and most recently a single-season career-high with three in 2023 for Double-A Biloxi. The Sounds lead the International League with 33 triples this season and are tied fourth in all Triple-A along with El Paso. Nashville's last triple prior to Murray's in the bottom of the fourth inning Saturday night came on August 1 vs. Charlotte by Freddy Zamora, ending a season-long 11-game drought between triples. 20 of the 33 three-baggers on the year have come at First Horizon Park, just the third time since 2005 the Sounds have recorded 20+ triples at home in a season. The team set a single-season high at home with 23 during the 2018 season.
EXTRA-EXTRA: Nashville fell to 2-8 in extra-innings this season with the loss. Saturday night was the second time going to extras against Indianapolis and their fifth extra-innings game in their last 23 games since the start of the Sugar Land series on July 21. It's just the second time playing multiple extra-innings games in the same series this year after playing three against the Space Cowboys in the six-game series. Nashville was also held to five or fewer hits in a game for the 30th time this season.