NASHVILLE - The Nashville Sounds earned their second straight win, beating the Gwinnett Stripers 4-3 on Friday night. The Sounds have secured at worst a series split with the Stripers this week with the win. Robert Gasser worked five strong innings on the mound for Nashville without a decision as he remains without a decision on the season. Luis Lara chipped in with his 20th multi-hit games of the season, finishing the night 2-for-4 and the only multi-hit game of the night for the Sounds offense.
The Stripers took the early two-run advantage in the opening frame of the game as Gasser let up two singles and a double for the 2-0 Stripers lead. Gasser quickly shut down the Stripers batters in the second and third innings, posting two straight 1-2-3 frames. The Sounds pushed two runs across the plate and tied the game in the bottom of the third inning, which started off with an Eddys Leonard leadoff single. Ramón Rodríguez belted a towering two-run home run to left field, his third long ball of the season to even the score at 2-2.
Gasser ended yet another efficient outing on a high note, allowing two runs (one unearned) on three hits, posting four 1-2-3 innings and striking out six batters without a decision. Major League Rehabber Jared Koenig made his first appearance with the Sounds and allowed a run to cross on a blooping RBI-single to give the Stripers the lead back 3-2 in the top of the sixth inning. However, Nashville gained its first lead of the night, knocking in two runs in the bottom half of the sixth as Cooper Pratt put down a one-out triple into right field. Luis Matos drew a two-out walk to put runners at the corners, and Pratt crossed the plate as the tying run on a balk. Jett Williams lined an RBI-single into center and scored Matos to give Nashville their first lead of the night.
Drew Rom entered the game for Koenig in the top of the seventh inning, adding the team's fifth 1-2-3 inning of the game. He wrapped up his night working two scoreless innings, allowing a hit with three strikeouts. Southpaw Brian Fitzpatrick worked the top of the ninth for the Sounds and struck out two of the three batters he faced to earn his first save of the season.
The Sounds will continue this week's series against the Stripers on Saturday, May 30 with Thomas Pannone (0-1, 3.04 ERA) scheduled to get the start. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m.
POSTGAME NOTES:
BACK IN THE HIT COLUMN: Eddys Leonard ended a five-game hitless drought with a single in the bottom of the third inning. It was just the third time in his professional career with a 5+ game hitless streak. He went a career-long seven straight games without a hit from May 25-June 1 of last year with Gwinnett. His other 5+ game hitless streak also happened from April 26-May 1of last season. Prior to his mini-slump, Leonard was ranked inside the top 10 in the International League in: XBH (T-3rd, 21), SLG (4th, .594), OPS (4th, 1.006), doubles (T-4th, 12), AVG (7th, .329), RBI (7th, 33), and total bases (T-7th, 85) through his first 39 games.
ROD AND REAL FAR: Ramon Rodriguez clubbed his third home run of the season with a two-run shot that evened the score at 2-2 in the third inning. It was his third home run of the season and first since May 13th against the Iowa Cubs. It was the first multi-RBI game of the season for Rodriguez who entered the night with just eight RBI through his first 27 games. The three home runs are tied for the third-most of any of his nine minor league seasons so far. After not hitting more than five home runs in a season through his first six seasons as a pro, Rodriguez clubbed a career-high 10 home runs in his first season in the Brewers farm system in 2024 with High-A Wisconsin.
PAY AT THE PUMP: Brewers no. 15-rated prospect Robert Gasser struck out six batters on Friday night over five strong innings without a decision. After allowing a pair of runs on three hits in the top of first inning, Gasser retired 13 straight batters beginning with the final out of the first inning. He struck out two of the three he faced in both the third and fourth innings. Gasser is yet to take a decision in any of his seven Triple-A games this season. He has now allowed two or fewer earned runs in six of his seven starts with Nashville with the only exception being the four runs allowed the first time he faced the Stripers on April 10th. Gasser lowered his ERA to 3.38 this year (10 ER / 26.2 IP) and has 38 strikeouts to just eight walks allowed.
STILL GIVIN EM FITZ: Brian Fitzpatrick's streak without an earned run has reached 14 straight games after tossing a three-up, three-down top of the ninth to earn his first save of the season and first since July 24, 2025, with Double-A Biloxi. His 14-game streak remains the second-longest in Triple-A and tied for the second-longest active streak in the minors. The southpaw added another two strikeouts to his season total to bring him to 18 strikeouts with just three walks across his 14 games and 14.2 IP with Nashville this season. The 14.2 IP without an earned run matched Garrett Stallings for the longest by innings for a Nashville pitcher this year while his 14 games are the most for a Sound since Jesus Liranzo went 14 games from July 6-August 22 last year. In the 2026 calendar year, Fitzpatrick has allowed just one earned run in 27.0 IP (0.33 ERA) between Nashville (14 G) and his first four career Major League regular season games and seven games with the Brewers in spring training.
119 MINUTES OR LESS: Nashville and Gwinnett played the second straight sub-2 hour game, finishing Friday night in 1:57. It is the first time since at least 2005 the Sounds have played back-to-back nine-inning games in under two hours and the sixth time overall that Nashville has played in a sub-2 hour game nine-inning game and all six have come at First Horizon Park. The Sounds are now 5-1 in games played under two hours since 2005.
ALL ABOUT THAT BASE: Brewers no. 4-rated prospect Cooper Pratt reached base safely for the 19th straight game, finishing Friday night 1-for-4 with a double and a run scored. His 19-game streak is the second longest on-base streak of the season for a Nashville player behind Brock Wilken's career-long 30 game streak he had earlier this year. Pratt's streak is tied for the sixth-longest in the International League and tied for the 10th-longest active streak in Triple-A. Since May 7, he is hitting .270 (20-for-74) with eight XBH and 17 RBI. He has a hit in 13 of his last 19 games, including seven multi-hit games, and has hit safely in each of his last five games.