Bats outlast Sounds 10-8 behind Arroyo, Rodríguez power surge

Nashville built enough offense to win most Triple-A games and still left Louisville Slugger Field empty-handed, 10-8, on Saturday night. The Sounds scored first, led 3-0 after one inning and later pushed back to regain a 6-3 advantage, but Louisville kept answering until Héctor Rodríguez’s 450-foot homer and a late bullpen stand finally separated the Bats in front of 6,534 fans.

The first inning looked like a Sounds statement. Cooper Pratt jumped a pitch for his second Triple-A homer of the season, a two-run blast that gave Nashville an immediate jolt, and Jeferson Quero followed with a two-out RBI double, his seventh double of the year, to stretch the lead. Nashville kept piling on from there, with Jett Williams reaching multiple times, Pratt adding more run production and Brock Wilken extending his on-base streak to 27 straight games.

That surge mattered because it kept Nashville in control even as Louisville kept moving the game back toward even. The Bats got timely production from Edwin Arroyo, who reached base four times and drove in multiple runs, and they leaned on a spot start from Sam Benschoter, who held the Sounds to three runs over three innings long enough for the offense to catch up. Rodríguez then delivered the loudest swing of the night, a shot measured at 450 feet and noted as the second-longest homer by any Louisville player in 2026.

The decisive stretch came when Nashville’s pitching lost the strike zone and the game turned into a parade of free passes and hitter-friendly counts. Carlos Rodriguez was charged with seven runs in 3.1 innings, and that instability wiped out the early cushion and the 6-3 edge Nashville had rebuilt in the fourth. The Sounds tied the game again in the middle innings, which kept the contest alive deep into the night, but Louisville’s response was cleaner and more composed when it mattered most.

For Nashville, the defeat carried a familiar sting after Friday night’s 9-6 loss, when the Bats broke open the game with a seven-run third inning. The Sounds have had enough offense to trade punches in back-to-back games, but until the pitching sharpens in the exact innings when pressure spikes, eight runs will keep feeling like almost enough.