Stallings Delivers First Quality Start of the Season in 8-0 Victory Over Louisville

The Nashville Sounds blanked the Louisville Bats 8-0 on Sunday afternoon at Louisville Slugger Field to split the series. Right-hander Garrett Stallings recorded his first quality start of the season and the sixth of his Nashville career, allowing three hits and striking out four over six scoreless innings.

The Sounds scored first for the third straight game and opened the scoring in the first inning for the second consecutive contest. Jett Williams led off with a single, one of Nashville’s three hits in the inning. After Cooper Pratt reached on a fielder’s choice, Luis Lara dropped a bloop single into right to move Pratt into scoring position. A wild pitch by Louisville starter Chase Petty advanced both runners, and Jeferson Quero followed with a two-run single to left to make it 2-0.

Nashville added a run in the second after one-out singles by Jordyn Adams and Jacob Hurtubise. Williams then brought home Adams with a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 3-0. The Sounds added two more in the fifth. Eddys Leonard drew a leadoff walk, and Ethan Murray followed with a one-out walk later in the inning. Hurtubise drove in Leonard with an RBI single to center, and Williams added an RBI double—his fifth of the season—to score Murray and push the lead to 5-0.

Stallings cruised through six scoreless innings, including two early 1-2-3 frames. Reliever Craig Yoho worked out of trouble in the seventh with two strikeouts after allowing a single to Rece Hinds. Nashville broke it open with three runs in the eighth. Williams drew his second walk of the game before Pratt reached on a fielding error by Edwin Arroyo, allowing Williams to score. Leonard later came home on a throwing error by the Bats, and Murray capped the inning with an RBI single to center after Ramón Rodríguez extended his hitting streak with a single to right. Peter Strzelecki threw a perfect eighth, and Blake Holub finished the ninth. After issuing a two-out walk, Holub got a game-ending flyout to Lara to seal the shutout.

After an off day Monday, the Sounds return to First Horizon Park on Tuesday night to open a six-game series against the Iowa Cubs, the Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs. First pitch is set for 6:35 p.m.

POSTGAME NOTES:

CONSISTENCY IS KEY: Jeferson Quero extended his RBI streak to three games with a two-run single in the first inning of Sunday’s win. Over that stretch, he is batting .333 (4-for-12) with a double and four RBI. His four RBI during the streak rank second in the International League behind Christian Arroyo of Syracuse, who has five. The game was Quero’s second multi-RBI performance in the last five games and his fourth in the last 11, and it moved him past Eddys Leonard for the team lead with 24 RBI. The 23-year-old also ranks third on the team in batting average (.257), home runs (4), and doubles (7).

NARD-DOG: Eddys Leonard doubled again Sunday, extending his streak to four straight games with a double. During that span, he is batting .429 (6-for-14) with five extra-base hits and five RBI, and he is tied for second in the International League with Maick Collado of Columbus in consecutive games with a double. The only other time Leonard doubled in four straight games was May 10-13, 2022, with High-A Great Lakes, the same season he set a career high with 32 doubles. The last Sounds player to record at least four straight games with a double was Abraham Toro, who doubled in seven consecutive games from July 18-25, 2023. Leonard now leads the team with 10 doubles, ahead of Brock Wilken (9), and has 154 career doubles since 2018.

STALL-ITY START: Garrett Stallings recorded Nashville’s third quality start of the season and earned his second win Sunday after allowing three hits and striking out four over six scoreless innings. He now has six career quality starts in three seasons with the Sounds, including five during the 2025 season, and 19 overall in his six-year career. Stallings has also posted 14 career outings of at least 5.0 innings without allowing a run, including 8.0 scoreless innings with nine strikeouts for Triple-A Norfolk against Charlotte on August 1, 2023. This season, he is 2-2 with a 4.10 ERA in eight appearances, including five starts, for Nashville.

SHUT THEM OUT: Nashville recorded its second combined shutout of the season, with Garrett Stallings setting the tone in his first quality start of the year before Craig Yoho, Peter Strzelecki, and Blake Holub each added a scoreless inning. The first combined shutout came April 2 in a 4-0 win over Charlotte at First Horizon Park. Since 2005, the Sounds have recorded 178 shutouts, including 16 last season. Nashville is 2-1 this year when its starter works at least 6.0 innings.

TWO-ADAMS: Jordyn Adams collected his first multi-hit game with the Sounds on Sunday, going 2-for-4 with a run scored. It was his third multi-hit game of the season after recording two with Double-A Biloxi in April. Adams has 171 career multi-hit games since 2018, with a single-season high of 39 for Triple-A Salt Lake in 2024.

MULTI-HIT-UBISE: Jacob Hurtubise posted his third multi-hit game of the season Sunday against his former team, going 2-for-4 with an RBI. The performance was the 85th multi-hit game of his six-year career. His single-season high is 30, set in 2023 while playing for Triple-A Louisville and Triple-A Charlotte.