Norfolk Tides drop series opener to Nashville, 8-3

The Norfolk Tides (46-53) lost to the Nashville Sounds (60-39), 8-3, on Tuesday at Harbor Park. The Tides have lost three games in a row.

Both teams scored in the first inning. Nashville was able to scratch across an unearned run to take the initial lead. But Norfolk responded right away, where Gunnar Henderson led off with a double and then scored on a single by Kyle Stowers to tie the game at 1-1.

Nashville retook the lead in the second inning. Mario Feliciano walked with one out and stole second base. Sal Frelick then knocked Feliciano in for his first Triple-A RBI and to give Nashville a 2-1 lead. In the third, they added two more runs when Keston Hiura blasted a two-run homer to extend the Sounds lead to 4-1.

Back-to-back home runs were hit by the Sounds in the fourth inning to extend their lead to 6-1. Mario Feliciano led the inning off with his third homer of the season, while Weston Wilson followed him with his eighth homer. They went on to score two more runs in the fifth when Brice Turang hit a two-run single to extend Nashville’s lead to 8-1.

Stowers would knock in a run in the sixth inning on an RBI groundout and Rylan Bannon would hit a sacrifice fly in the eighth, but that would be it as the Tides lost, 8-3. Game two of the series starts tomorrow at 6:35 p.m. RHP Matt Harvey (2-0, 4.58) will start for the Tides and will face off against Sounds starter RHP Jason Alexander (6-2, 2.39).