Worcester hands Nashville 4-2 loss, ends Sounds' strong run

Nate Eaton’s first swing after four quiet innings changed the whole afternoon. His leadoff homer in the fifth inning cracked a scoreless tie, and Worcester kept stacking contact from there to hand Nashville a 4-2 loss at First Horizon Park and end the Sounds’ five-game winning streak.

The game had been a pitchers’ duel until Eaton sent one over the left-field fence. Worcester then added two more hits in the inning to move in front 2-0, and the Sounds spent the rest of the night chasing. Michael Sansone, making his Triple-A debut for the WooSox, made that chase even harder. He worked six scoreless innings and allowed just four baserunners, giving up two hits and two walks while striking out five.

That fifth inning was the turn. Nashville had already spent the weekend building momentum with Friday’s split doubleheader wins by 4-2 scores, a pair that gave the franchise its 3,500th victory, then Saturday’s 2-1 win behind five pitchers who allowed only one run. Sunday flipped the script. Worcester extended the lead to 4-0 with a run in the eighth and then a sacrifice fly after a sequence of walks and hits, while also snapping its own five-game losing streak and avoiding a six-game sweep.

Nashville finally broke through in the ninth. Jett Williams opened the inning with a walk, a small but notable moment after he had stretched his on-base streak to 13 straight games during Saturday’s win. Tyler Black followed with an RBI double to make it 4-1, a significant return-from-injury note for a player who had been listed as inactive before the game. Jeferson Quero kept the inning moving with a soft single that brought Black home and cut the deficit to 4-2. Freddy Zamora, though, could not complete the comeback.

The late push showed some life, but it also exposed the problem that decided the series finale: when Nashville had to play from behind, Worcester kept answering with timely contact and enough pitching to protect the lead. Quero’s RBI added to a strong run that already included his four-RBI game in Tuesday’s win over Worcester, but the Sounds never found the one big swing they needed after Eaton’s homer opened the door the other way.