by Bill Craig / A’s Farm Nashville Correspondent
The Nashville Sounds’ first homestand of 2018 will kick off on Tuesday, April 10th at First Tennessee Park with a three-game series against the Chicago Cubs’ Triple-A affiliate, the Iowa Cubs, followed by a four-game series against the Kansas City Royals’ Triple-A affiliate, the Omaha Storm Chasers.
RHP James Naile (1-0, 0.00 ERA) will take the mound for the Sounds in Tuesday’s home opener while the Cubs will send Alec Mills to the hill. Mills will be making his first start of the season. Naile (the A’s 26th-ranked prospect according to Baseball America) gave up 3 hits with no walks and 5 strikeouts over 5 innings of work to earn the win for the Sounds on opening night in New Orleans. He didn’t allow a hit until the 4th inning and struck out 5 straight at one point.
The Sounds pitching staff has been solid, compiling a combined 2.20 ERA with 31 strikeouts over 41 innings of work. Unfortunately, Nashville’s defense has made a total of eight errors over the team’s first five games. And after scoring 11 runs on opening night, the Sounds offense has gone cold, producing just 6 runs while going 4 for 24 with runners in scoring position over the team’s next four games.
First-year Nashville manager Fran Riordan will look to lead the Sounds back into the win column in front of the home crowd at First Tennessee Park on Tuesday. But the Sounds will have to start the homestand without one the team’s most high-profile players, infielder Franklin Barreto, who was promoted to Oakland on Saturday due to Chad Pinder‘s knee injury. And on Sunday morning, the Sounds also lost slugging outfielder Mark Canha, who was recalled by the A’s to replace injured outfielder Boog Powell.
Starting pitchers for the remainder of the homestand have yet to be announced. But if the first week’s pitching rotation is any indication, then the Sounds could follow Naile on Tuesday with a tandem of RHPs Frankie Montas and Chris Bassitt on Wednesday, RHP Trevor Cahill on Thursday, LHP Eric Jokisch on Friday and a tandem of LHP Brett Anderson and RHP Raul Alcantara on Saturday.
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