Adams’ double play preserves Sounds’ 6-5 win over Cubs

Jordyn Adams erased Iowa’s best chance to steal the game in one motion, turning Justin Dean’s drive in right field into a game-ending double play and giving the Nashville Sounds a 6-5 win Thursday night at First Horizon Park.

With Christian Bethancourt on first base and Dean sending a ball that looked headed for the gap, Adams tracked it down, appeared to tip it into his glove as he came down, and then doubled off Bethancourt trying to get back to the bag. The finish saved Nashville in front of 5,677 fans on a 79-degree night with clear skies and a 14 mph wind blowing out to left field.

That ending mattered because the game had been hanging by a thread for most of the night. Iowa walked 11 batters and still kept poking at Nashville, while the Sounds kept answering every time the Cubs nudged ahead. Nashville opened the scoring on Ethan Murray’s RBI groundout after Jeferson Quero and Greg Jones worked back-to-back walks, but Iowa answered against Carlos Rodriguez and a one-inning bridge from rehabbing Rob Zastryzny.

Tyler Black pushed Nashville back even with an RBI double, extending his hitting streak to 11 games, but Iowa scratched out three more runs to move in front 4-2. Nashville’s bullpen then steadied the game, and Kaleb Bowman made the pivot point even bigger when he escaped a bases-loaded jam before rolling through two scoreless innings with a season-high five strikeouts.

The Sounds kept climbing back. Quero sparked the rally with a solo homer in the fifth, Jett Williams added a triple and later a double, and Cooper Pratt delivered the RBI single that tied the game at 4-4. Nashville then manufactured the go-ahead run in the seventh after Black walked, the Cubs threw away a double-play chance, Black stole a base and then scored on another throwing mistake.

Brock Wilken’s sacrifice fly added another run in the eighth after Iowa intentionally walked Luis Lara to load the bases, and that extra cushion proved valuable when Dean came up with one last swing at the final margin. Adams made sure it never became a regret.

The play also sharpened Adams’ own case. The 26-year-old former first-round pick, taken 17th overall by the Angels in 2018, came in hitting .202 with three homers, 16 RBIs and six steals at Triple-A this season. On a night when Nashville improved to 23-19 and Iowa dropped to 18-23 after a fourth straight loss, Adams offered more than a highlight. He supplied the kind of defense that changes a game, and maybe a roster conversation too.

Nashville had already beaten Iowa 9-3 in the series opener the night before, and this one felt even more decisive because it was never truly safe until Adams closed it out from right field. The Sounds got just enough from their lineup, enough from Bowman and the bullpen, and one sprawling finish that brought the park to a halt.