by Rachel Davis / A’s Farm Nashville Contributor
Each week, we’ll be taking a look at some of the top performers for the A’s top affiliate, the Triple-A Nashville Sounds, over the past week. This week covers the Sounds’ first homestand from Tuesday, April 10 through Monday, April 16. So, let’s see who was busy making “sounds” in Music City last week…
Pitcher James Naile
Naile has been missing plenty of bats and turning plenty of heads over his first three starts this season. And after throwing 17 2/3 innings over his first three outings, the 25-year-old is still sporting a perfect 0.00 ERA, which earned him the honor of being named the Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Week on Monday. Naile began last week’s homestand with a strong performance in Tuesday’s home opener against Iowa, tossing 5 2/3 scoreless innings while allowing just one walk and striking out three. He was even better in his last start against Omaha on Sunday. Due to a rain delay during Saturday’s suspended game, Sunday’s contest was slated to be an abbreviated seven-inning game. And all Naile did was throw a complete-game shutout, issuing just one walk while striking out seven to earn his third win for the Sounds.
First Baseman Slade Heathcott
Slade Heathcott is quickly earning a name for himself in Nashville. He came into the Sounds’ first homestand on Tuesday batting a meager .067, but he quickly found his swing and ended the week hitting .316. During the Sounds’ two home series against Iowa and Omaha last week, Heathcott went 11 for 23 with four doubles, while striking out just four times and earning four walks. His most impressive performance came during Sunday’s doubleheader against the Omaha Storm Chasers, when he went a combined 5 for 7. And in Sunday’s second game, with the game tied in the bottom of the 7th inning, he doubled to drive what would eventually prove to be the winning run to third base. Heathcott’s not exactly a young prospect. The 27-year-old was a 1st-round draft pick for the Yankees way back in 2009 and also spent time with the White Sox and Giants organizations before signing with the A’s as a minor league free agent in the offseason. And the Texas native seems to have a certain grit and a real competitive edge that Sounds fans are sure to appreciate.
Outfielder B.J. Boyd
B.J. Boyd had an incredible week in front of the home crowd during the Sounds’ two series against Iowa and Omaha. He entered the week hitting just .182 but ended it with an impressive .353 batting average. Boyd has been a real team player. He hasn’t hit for much power or tried to swing for the fences, but he has been patient and steady. During the homestand, the 24-year-old outfielder went 10 for 23 with one double and three walks while striking out only once. Boyd has also been an RBI machine, knocking in a total of 9 runs since Tuesday. And he ended Monday’s game with a heads-up play when he sprinted home to score the winning run on a wild pitch, as the Sounds won in a walk-off.
Pitcher Frankie Montas
With his less-than-memorable first start, when he gave up four runs in just 2/3 of an inning, behind him, Frankie Montas set out to redeem himself in his start against Iowa on Wednesday. The Sounds were hoping to get a little more out of Montas in his second start on Wednesday, and the 25-year-old didn’t disappoint. He threw three scoreless innings, giving up just one hit while walking none and striking out three. Montas demonstrated excellent command of the strike zone and consistently threw in the mid-to-upper 90s. He then went on to allow just one earned run in three innings of work in his last start on Monday.
Pitcher Chris Bassitt
When handing out accolades, relief work often goes overlooked, but it was impossible to ignore Chris Bassitt’s performance last week. Entering the season, Frankie Montas had not yet been properly stretched out for starting duty, so Bassitt has been working in tandem with him, coming in to pitch multiple innings after Montas makes an early exit. After tossing four scoreless innings in the season’s second game, Bassitt threw four more scoreless frames in Wednesday’s game, when he struck out six batters without allowing walk to keep his ERA at a clean 0.00. Monday’s outing against Omaha didn’t produce quite the same numbers, but the 29-year-old’s effort was still impressive nonetheless. Nashville has been unusually cold this April, and the game-time temperature on Monday was a frigid 39 degrees under cloudy skies. Not only was it cold, but it was also very windy. But Bassitt was able to battle through five innings of relief work while allowing only one earned run in the less-than-desirable conditions. And after his work in the game, his ERA on the season ticked up to a tidy 0.69.
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