Nashville pounds Durham 16-5, stays tied for first in first-half race
Akil Baddoo and Luis Matos drove in four runs apiece as Nashville answered an early deficit and rolled past Durham 16-5, staying tied for first.
Nashville put together its most complete first-half performance Thursday night, turning an early hole into a 16-5 rout of Durham at First Horizon Park and matching its season-high margin of victory. The Sounds fell behind 1-0 in the first inning, then answered immediately and never let the Bulls settle in.
Akil Baddoo jump-started the comeback with a two-RBI single, and Nashville scored seven runs over the first three innings to seize control. Luis Matos and Greg Jones kept the pressure on throughout the night, with Matos driving in four runs and Jones adding three RBIs as the Sounds kept stacking productive at-bats against a Durham staff that never found a clean way through the lineup. Nashville finished with 15 hits and drew 12 walks, a combination that showed up in both the score and the pitch count.
The decisive burst came in the fifth, when Nashville sent the game out of reach with six runs. By then, the Sounds had already shown the kind of response that has defined their best home wins this season: fall behind, answer quickly, and keep the inning alive until the opposing side cracks. Durham issued 12 walks and needed 209 pitches to get through the game, including 120 over the first four innings, as the Bulls spent most of the night working from behind in counts.
Thomas Pannone provided the steadying start Nashville needed. He worked five innings, allowed three earned runs on six hits and struck out a season-high seven, his most in a game since he punched out nine against Buffalo on Aug. 14, 2024. The bullpen inherited a large cushion, and the 6,886 fans on hand saw the Sounds finish in 3 hours, 6 minutes with a result that looked more like a statement than a hot offensive streak.
The win kept Nashville tied with Memphis atop the first-half race with nine games left, adding urgency to a result that mattered beyond one night’s box score. Durham, meanwhile, dropped its ninth straight game, the Bulls’ longest losing streak since 2012, and Nashville left no doubt that it knew exactly where it stood in the standings and exactly how to play when the margin for error shrinks.
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