Abraham Toro went 2 for 5 with four RBIs, including a two-run single that sparked a four-run eighth inning, and the Nashville Sounds rallied for a 10-8 victory over the Norfolk Tides before 5,039 fans Tuesday night at Harbor Park.
The Tides (60-35, 12-9 in second half) blew a 5-0 lead in dropping the first game of a 13-game homestand.
Offense wasn’t the problem as Norfolk collected 15 hits. Joey Ortiz went 4 for 4 with two RBIs and Coby Mayo went 3 for 4 with a homer and four RBIs.
The Sounds (52-43, 12-9) had only eight hits, but took advantage of three Tides errors to score three unearned runs.
Norfolk scored three runs in the first on Ortiz’s RBI single, Mayo’s run-scoring double and Cesar Prieto’s RBI single. The Tides added single runs in the second and third innings on Ortiz’s sacrifice fly and Mayo’s solo homer to make it 5-0.
Nashville rallied for two runs in the fifth and three in the sixth to tie it. Toro hit a two-run double in the fifth and the Sounds hit two homers — Tyler Naquin’s solo shot and Payton Henry’s two-run shot — in the sixth.
The Tides retook the lead at 6-5 in the seventh on Mayo’s RBI double.
The Sounds went ahead for good, though, in the eighth. Toro’s second two-RBI hit of the game, a single, put Nashville in front 7-6. Another run scored on Nick Vespi’s wild pitch and Cam Devanney hit an RBI ground-rule double to make it 9-6.
Nashville scored on another wild pitch in the top of the ninth to make it 10-6, but Norfolk made it interesting in the bottom of the ninth.
Ortiz led off with a single and advanced to third on two wild pitches by Sounds reliever Clayton Andrews. After Kyle Stowers walked, Mayo hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Ortiz and make it 10-7.
Prieto then walked and Daz Cameron singled on a ground ball to short to load the bases and bring the potential winning run to the plate. Robbie Glendinning pinch-hit for Lewin Diaz and Thyago Vieira replaced Andrews on the mound. Nashville won that chess move as Vieira struck out Glendinning on three pitches.
Maverick Handley hit an RBI single to make it 10-8 and put the tying run at second, but Vieira bounced back and struck out Connor Norby on three pitches to end it.
Tides starter Ryan Watson tossed three scoreless innings, but middle relievers Morgan McSweeney and Wandisson Charles (1-2) gave up three runs each in less than an inning.
J.B. Bukauskas (3-2) pitched the seventh and eighth innings for Nashville, giving up a run and getting the victory.
The two teams play again at 6:35 p.m. Wednesday. Right-hander Garrett Stallings (2-2, 4.44), a former Grassfield High star, is the scheduled starter for Norfolk and Nashville will counter with righty Caleb Boushley (5-4, 4.65).
