Wilken pushes on-base streak to 20 games
The Nashville Sounds lost game four to the Norfolk Tides, 6-5, on Friday night after a late comeback bid fell just short. Brock Wilken extended his on-base streak to 20 games, the longest active streak on the team this season.
Norfolk took a 3-0 lead in the first inning against rehab starter Quinn Priester, highlighted by Creed Willems’ two-run homer. Nashville answered in the bottom half when back-to-back one-out singles from Luis Lara and Jett Williams put two aboard. Two batters later, Eddys Leonard singled to center to score Williams. Then, after a two-out infield single by Ramón RodrÃguez, Ethan Murray hit an RBI single that brought home Wilken when Norfolk could not complete the play, trimming the deficit to 3-2.
The Tides restored a three-run cushion in the second, using three singles and a double to score twice, including Willems’ third RBI of the night. Norfolk added another run on Christian Encarnacion-Strand’s solo homer off reliever Kaleb Bowman to make it 6-2. After Nashville scored twice in the first, its offense went quiet over the next four innings and stranded four runners. Bowman then gave way to Jacob Waguespack in the sixth after allowing one run on five hits with one strikeout over three innings.
Jacob Waguespack retired the side in order in the sixth, striking out the first two batters. In the bottom of the inning, Jordyn Adams was hit by a pitch and Jacob Hurtubise walked to spark the offense. After Cooper Pratt moved both runners into scoring position with a groundout, Lara drove in Adams with an RBI single. Williams then lined a two-run double to left, scoring Hurtubise and Lara to pull the Sounds within one at 6-5.
Waguespack was outstanding, striking out a season-high six over three scoreless innings. He capped his outing by fanning three straight hitters in the eighth after the first three Tides reached, stranding the bases loaded and keeping Nashville within a run. The Sounds had one final chance in the ninth, but after a leadoff popout by Williams and a foul-tip strikeout by Wilken, Leonard walked before RodrÃguez grounded out to end the game.
With the series split through four games, the Sounds and Tides meet again Saturday, May 2. First pitch is set for 6:35 p.m., with the winner taking the series lead.
POSTGAME NOTES:
LU-THREES LARA: Luis Lara recorded his 11th multi-hit game and sixth three-hit game of the season, finishing 3-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored Friday night. The Brewers’ No. 11 prospect had eight games with three or more hits in 2025 with Double-A Biloxi, though his first did not come until May 24. Friday marked the 29th game with at least three hits in his professional career. The 21-year-old now ranks among the International League leaders in hits (1st, 38), runs (1st, 29), total bases (T-3rd, 59), stolen bases (T-3rd, 12), and batting average (9th, .336). Lara now has more three-hit games than six of his current teammates have multi-hit games overall.
WAGS TO PITCHES: Jacob Waguespack set season highs in innings pitched (3.0) and strikeouts (6) Friday night, escaping a major jam in his final inning to extend his scoreless streak without allowing an earned run. After Norfolk loaded the bases with no outs, Waguespack struck out three straight hitters to keep the score at 6-5. It was his longest relief outing since also throwing 3.0 innings on April 8, 2024, against the Los Angeles Angels while with the Tampa Bay Rays. The six strikeouts matched the second-highest total of his 160 career relief appearances. He also struck out six over three relief innings on July 15, 2016, with the Lakewood Blue Claws (PHI). His career high out of the bullpen is seven strikeouts, set May 27, 2019, with the Toronto Blue Jays against the Rays. Waguespack’s streak without an earned run is now 8.1 innings over five games, the third-longest such stretch by a Nashville pitcher this season behind Brian Fitzpatrick (10.1) and Will Childers (10.0). During that run, he has 14 strikeouts and has allowed only four hits.
MAGIC EIGHT BALL: Brewers’ No. 4 prospect Cooper Pratt extended his hitting streak to eight games by going 1-for-5 on Friday night. That streak is four games longer than the next active streak by a Nashville player (Ramón RodrÃguez) and ranks as the club’s third-longest this season behind Tyler Black (9) and Eddys Leonard (9). Since April 24, Pratt is batting .424 (11-for-26) with four extra-base hits, five RBI, seven walks, six runs scored, and a 1.260 OPS. It is the seventh hitting streak of at least eight games in his professional career. His career-best streak reached 12 games from July 20 to August 2, 2024, beginning with Low-A Carolina and continuing after his promotion to High-A Wisconsin. He also produced three separate streaks of at least 10 games between June 1 and August 2 that season. His most recent streak of eight or more games before this one came with Double-A Biloxi from August 12-22 last year, when he hit safely in nine straight games.
STILL STREAKIN: Brock Wilken extended his on-base streak to 20 games with a walk in the fifth inning. The streak is the fourth-longest active run in the International League and tied for the eighth-longest in Triple-A this season. It is already a career best for the Brewers’ No. 21 prospect and one of just 16 on-base streaks of 20 games or more by Nashville since the start of the 2021 season.
GOTTA JETT: Jett Williams matched his single-game career high with three hits Friday night. The Brewers’ No. 3 prospect (MLB Pipeline) now has two three-hit games for Nashville this season, the most recent of which came in the series opener against Worcester on Tuesday, April 14. He has posted multi-hit performances in four of his last eight games and has reached base in each of his last seven. Williams was the only Nashville player with multiple RBI on Friday, giving him five multi-RBI games this season. He is tied for the second-most on the team with Jeferson Quero and Eddys Leonard.
