by Bill Craig / A’s Farm Nashville Correspondent
The Sounds will look to continue their winning ways in Music City when they return home to First Tennessee Park on Wednesday for their second homestand of the season. Nashville will face off for five games against the New Orleans Baby Cakes, who dominated the Sounds in their season-opening series in The Big Easy.
Nashville notched the win on opening day by a score of 11-0 behind a dominant pitching performance by starter James Naile. But the Sounds would then fall to New Orleans in the next four games and headed home with a 1-4 record.
The Sounds went 5-2 in their first homestand earlier this month against the same teams that they just visited on the road, Iowa and Omaha. Nashville then went 3-3 on their recent six-game road trip that just concluded on Monday with a 4-3 win over Omaha to keep the team at an even .500 on the season.
Sounds skipper Fran Riordan will be sending out southpaws Brett Anderson (0-1, 1.38) and Eric Jokisch (0-3, 5.63) to start Wednesday’s and Thursday’s games. The remainder of the series will see RHP James Naile (3-1, 1.19) go on Friday, followed by RHP Frankie Montas (0-2, 5.25) on Saturday and RHP Daniel Gossett (1-0, 1.29) on Sunday.
Sounds fans are hoping to see outfielder B.J. Boyd (.327/.386/.423) back in action on Wednesday night after he sat out Monday’s game due to some hip discomfort. And the 24-year-old Bay Area native will be looking to extend his eight-game hitting streak as soon as he’s back in action. After spending some time in Oakland, infielder Franklin Barreto (.217/.296/.522) will be back in Music City for the first time this season. Barreto rejoined the Sounds in Iowa at the start of last week’s road trip and just slugged his second home run of the season for the Sounds on Sunday.
The five-game homestand is scheduled to conclude on Sunday afternoon, when the Sounds will then pack their bags and head off to Colorado Springs for a four-game series against the Sky Sox.
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